MWH wins top Institute of Public Works Engineering awards

MWH wins top Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia awards

MWH New Zealand Limited won two of the three 2014 IPWEA NZ awards presented at the award ceremony Saturday night

New Zealand, 2 July, 2014 – MWH New Zealand Limited 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 on Saturday night, 28 June 2014.

The third and final award presented was won by a project team representing 18 organisations which prepared revised NZ standards for building and engineering projects which included the MWH New Zealand Chief Engineer for Construction Contracts.

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

MWH New Zealand won two awards:

• The Physical Works over $10 million award for the Eastern Selwyn Sewerage Scheme at Rolleston
MWH New Zealand, with project partners Selwyn District Council and HEB Construction, won the category for projects greater than $10 million for its design, delivery and development of the Eastern Selwyn Sewerage Scheme at Rolleston, near Christchurch.

Initially, the aim was to expand the Eastern Selwyn Sewerage Scheme to covey and treat wastewater for the projected population increases in Prebbleton, Lincoln and Rolleston which had already had 20 years of significant growth. Project planning had to be suddenly expanded to allow for the unpredicted, significant migration of Christchurch residents into Selwyn following the Canterbury earthquakes. The project programme was accelerated without burdening ratepayers with unsupportable infrastructure costs, and while maintaining the existing plant operation.

A large portion of the operating cost of the existing wastewater treatment plant was in handling and disposing of sludge. The most innovative part of the project was a New Zealand-first solar air drying hall for biosolids which has provided a cost saving of about $3 million to $4 million by massively reducing the sludge needing to be carted off site for disposal. The project was led by MWH Christchurch engineers Rainer Hoffmann, Shane Bishop and Mark Ridge.

• The Physical Works Projects $2 million to $10 million award for the Mapua Wharf Wastewater Pump Station built on the most contaminated site in New Zealand
Never before has the construction of a wastewater pump station been attempted on a site with such a history of contamination. Due to expected population growth, a new pump station was needed for Mapua wharf in the Tasman district. The proposed new location was acknowledged as once the most contaminated site in New Zealand - the former Fruitgrowers’ Chemicals Company (FCC) manufacturing plant site. MWH New Zealand took on the challenge after being commissioned by the Tasman District 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 MWH 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 project partners Tasman District Council and Ching Contracting Ltd., 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.

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 which wrote the three new contracts between 2011-13. He has now presented many workshops for IPWEA NZ on use of the contracts to users throughout the country.

ENDS

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