Doug Hall is backing a new logging terminal at Milburn

About time someone on the Council pushed for practicalities. There is plenty of pious talk about sustainability, the evils of fossil fuels, the vital importance of signing feel-good good intentions aimed at stopping climate change, yet the majority of action has been plonking cycle lanes in unsafe roads because it's cheaper for DCC when there's a subsidy.
Doug Hall isn't my favourite person - long story, not relevant in this context. He knows transport though, and he knows business and practicality.

 

 

 

Monday, 19 August 2019

Hall backs new logging terminal

By Brent Melville

Logs are loaded at the Beach St wharf in Port Chalmers. Photo: Stephen Jaquiery 

 

 

Dunedin businessman and city councillor Doug Hall is backing a new logging terminal at Milburn, north of Milton. Mr Hall purchased the former City Forest's Milburn timber processing plant two years ago. It came with 10ha of land adjoining the Milburn railway siding.
"At the outset it was about saving the 10 jobs at the former City Forest-owned drying plant, though the site would be ideal for the proposed Milburn logging terminal," he said.
Port Otago operations general manager Kevin Kearney yesterday confirmed the port was continuing to look at inland alternatives to its Port Chalmers and Dunedin storage and berthage, although he did not add any detail as to where it might be.
KiwiRail executive sales and commercial general manager Alan Piper confirmed KiwiRail was investigating the potential for a road-rail hub in the Milton/Milburn area as part of a larger feasibility study covering Otago and Southland through the Government's Provincial Growth Fund.
Mr Piper said the study was expected to be finished towards the end of the year and would be be sent to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for ministers to consider.
"KiwiRail is well aware of the benefits of shifting more South Island freight on to rail, including for the environment."
A case study included in a just-released South Island freight study suggested the potential volume of railed freight from a Milburn site could be 50,000 tonnes of logs, to both Port Otago and South Port....

...The South Island generates about a third of the nation's freight, about 80million tonnes per year, with the forecasted increase mostly due to the agriculture and mineral industries, and population growth.
https://www.odt.co.nz/business/hall-backs-new-logging-terminal