Top infrastructure projects show their class in challenging times
A port completed seven months ahead of time and disaster recovery efforts were amongst the winners in last year’s 44th Civil Contractors New Zealand Hirepool Construction Excellence Awards, celebrating the best of New Zealand’s civil infrastructure construction industry.
The top category award for projects over $100m went to HEB Constrution’s project to construct the new Te Whiti Wharf 6 for Port Napier, which is the largest wharf built in the country in decades, at 390 metres long and 34 metres wide.
This project was built to accommodate larger cargo and cruise ships. Incredibly, it was completed under budget and seven months ahead of schedule. It featured construction of a 1.1-metre-thick deck supported by over 400 piles installed to an astounding depth of 45 metres. Revetment works involved importing and placing 50,000 tonnes of rock and installing 4,500 custom made blocks weighing up to 18 tonnes.
The judges congratulated HEB Construction, noting that constructing this complex and innovative project with an excellent level of stakeholder engagement and highly technical construction methodology in a very challenging, resource constrained and uncertain time was quite remarkable.
Waikato’s Connell Contractors took out first place in Category 2 for projects with a value of between $2m and $5m for the Poutu Intake and Tunnel Erosion Repair Works. This project to restore the 2.7km tunnel that takes water from the Tongariro River to the Tokaanu Power Station remedied significant damage, restoring the 50-year-old tunnel to operation.
Fulton Hogan won Category 3 for projects with a value between $5m and $20m for a State Highway 6 road restoration conducted on an incredible schedule of 48 days, restoring the vital transport connection between Nelson and Blenheim to operation, also winning Category 6 for excellence in maintenance and operations for fulfilling the Hastings District Council rural road maintenance contract with excellence at a time when the network was severely impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Oxcon CLL was the winner of Category 4 for projects with a value between $20m and $100m with the Te Ara Ki Uta Ki Tai – Shared Path of land and Sea, which connects Auckland’s eastern suburbs to the Waitemata Harbour’s southern shore. The project was recognised by the judges for environmental excellence in a significant ecological area that bordered on a coastal marine environment, delivered on time and below budget.
Civil Contractors New Zealand chief executive Alan Pollard says this year’s projects showed what was possible when projects were well planned and civil contractors were commissioned with a focus on collaboration and delivering value.
These projects and the teams and companies that have worked to construct them deserved recognition for the benefits their work will bring us for decades to come, Pollard says.
“Infrastructure construction connects our communities, brings water to our homes, and shapes the built and natural environments around us.
“These projects are exemplars of what’s possible when civil contractors, infrastructure designers, clients and communities work together with the vision, licence and focus to meet the country’s infrastructure needs despite all the challenges the world has to throw at us.”