Mingha Bluff box culvert install 1

The view east from the work site on the River Bealey riverbed.

Stakeholder oversight of the project from go to whoa.

Documentary photography project overview

This is the first of a series of 5 galleries documenting the install of a 10.5m reinforced concrete box culvert beneath the Christchurch – Greymouth “Tranzalpine” railway shot on the night of Sunday July 3, 2016 for client TruLine Civil’s website case study portfolio project.

MagentaDot Brands documented the methodology for installing one of six under-rail reinforced concrete box culverts. Part of a package of civil works, TruLine Civil is delivering to the Mingha Bluff road realignment project.

This documentary photography major archive project for TruLine began in 2004 and since 2008 the chronicling of significant Civil Works events has been an ongoing, consistent project for MagentaDot Brands’ professional photographer Shaun Waugh, who observes:

“The client brief is to shoot photos that accurately document their civil works methodologies. By document I mean to photograph to accurately describe otherwise forbidden, difficult to access places or sets of circumstances that are hidden in plain sight. The photos range from dry records of excavation to photojournalistic, more personal evocative images of men collaborating or immersed in their work.

The documentary photography of men and machines at work in the Civil Engineering field is building TruLine an archive of historical significance which was intended, from the outset, to be distributed primarily to the narrow audience of their customer base via the TruLine website case study portfolio.”

By following through with research and then writing the case studies, creating custom maps as required, the case study portfolio Shaun is developing is partly an educational in-house resource, partly a business-to-business marketing communications web platform, and with the slideshow feature and the inclusion of videos, a capabilities brochure sales tool used by TruLine’s marketing and sales team, and in competitive tender bid documents. Shaun adds:

“To the extent that students, media and the public are interested, the case studies also have a role in changing public perceptions of the work experience of modernity, of workers, their works, and the conditions of work for people, mostly men, such as drainlayers, road workers, earthmoving and other heavy machinery operators, truck drivers, and civil engineers.

Inevitably because the photography is documenting “the way we do things” in Civil Works today, it intersects with the prevalent complex of organisational culture that is good workplace Safety Culture.

The photography documents that adequate attention is being paid to safety issues by capturing workers’ realistic practices for handling hazards as well as compliance to standards, rules and procedures by the workforce. It is also aimed to contribute to sharing critical information within TruLine’s workforce and management that powers the “engine” of ideal safety culture, being a constant high level of respect for anything that might defeat safety systems.”

4:00–5:00 pm. Site overview, start excavating the 5m under-rail trench

From the time the Tranzalpine train passed over the culvert installation site the TruLine Civil crew had 17 hours in which to install the 10.5 m reinforced concrete box culvert and reinstate the railway.

NEXT GALLERY, MINGHA BLUFF 2