Hawaiki commissions cable landing station in New Zealand

Hawaiki Submarine Cable, the company building a subsea cable between Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and the mainland US, has commissioned the construction of the New Zealand cable landing station.

New Zealand electrical engineering and construction company McKay has been commissioned to construct a landing station at Mangawhai Heads on New Zealand’s North Island.

The multi-million dollar contract covers the complete civil, building and electrical work, including standby generation and uninterruptible power supply systems.

“This contract represents a key step forward for Hawaiki system deployment in New Zealand,” Hawaiki CEO Remi Galasso said.

“We are proud to participate to the economic development of the Northland region and are confident that McKay will deliver this critical piece of infrastructure in the most efficient and timely manner.”

The Hawaiki cable is scheduled to be ready for service by June next year. As well as the main route, the cable will have options to branch to several islands in the South Pacific, including Fiji, Tonga, New Caledonia and American Samoa.

The cable will have a design capacity of 42Tbps, making it the highest cross-sectional capacity link between Australia, New Zealand and the US.

In May, Hawaiki announced that manufacturing of the 14,000km cable is nearing completion.