MWH laps up awards

MWH New Zealand won two of the three awards presented by the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia, New Zealand Division (IPWEA NZ), at the institute’s annual award ceremony in Auckland in June.

The IPWEA awards recognise engineering excellence in infrastructure projects completed in New Zealand in the last two years.

MWH New Zealand won The Physical Works over $10m award for the Eastern Selwyn Sewerage scheme at Rolleston. The company, with project partners Selwyn council and HEB Construction, won the category for its design, delivery and development of the scheme at Rolleston, near Christchurch.

The Physical Works Projects ($2m to $10m) award for the Mapua Wharf Wastewater Pump Station.

Due to expected population growth, a new pump station was needed for Mapua wharf in the Tasman district, but the proposed location was acknowledged as once the most contaminated site in New Zealand – it was the former Fruitgrowers’ Chemicals Company (FCC) manufacturing plant site.

MWH New Zealand took on the challenge after being commissioned by Tasman council to evaluate the Mapua wastewater reticulation system and propose how it could meet the expected doubling of the area’s population over the next 30 years.

The design ensured that the volume of contaminated earthworks and ground water needing to be dealt with was minimised. Excavated material was not allowed to come into contact with any other land area, vehicle or person before being transported in lined trucks to the council’s landfill.

Another challenge was designing and constructing the pump station in a restricted space at Mapua wharf, a tourist hot spot. This meant it had to be aesthetically pleasing with no odour.

During construction, stringent precautions ensured the health and safety of contractors and the community. Site staff wore full body protective clothing and had to obtain the appropriate inoculations.

MWH, with the council and project partner Ching Contracting, delivered a cost-effective outcome that met the project requirements. The project was led by MWH engineers Avik Halder in Nelson and Grant Shearer in Wellington.

A third and final award was won by a project team representing 18 organisations that prepared revised standards for building and engineering projects.

The IPWEA projects of investigation, reporting systems or processes award was won by a range of industry representatives for their review of NZS 3910/3916/3917 suite of standards.

Andrew Brickell, MWH New Zealand’s chief engineer for construction contracts, prepared this award entry on behalf of the 18 professional organisations that participated in the review of NZS 3910 during the period 2010-13.

Andrew had undertaken the scoping study for this review, then represented ACENZ and IPENZ on the review team that wrote the three new contracts.