Motutapu Island is a conservation reserve situated in the Hauraki Gulf.

Telecom has an old guyed mast radio tower situated on this Island requiring some urgent maintenance due to corrosion issues from a heavy salt air environment.

Infratel was given the challenge to remove the top six mast modules (18m) and then refurbish and re-guy the remaining 27m of the mast. The issues were compounded by the mast being situated in a Department of Conservation reserve, and pest free Island. Infratel had to work within strict Department of Conservation guidelines and council regulations for this sensitive area.

The first challenge was to remove the top section of the mast, and this was achieved by using a unique dismantling process using a helicopter as the lifting and lowering crane for the individual structured sections of the tower. The sections were then dismantled and removed from the island by barge. The mast was then re-guyed whist still providing linking communication services to a number of other islands in the Hauraki Gulf.

A containment area was set up below the mast to catch any paint flakes that were dislodged due to the water blasting of the mast.

Over the next few days the corrosion was treated and the mast fully repainted whilst complying with mandatory height above ground aviation hazard markings.