WINNER
Tauranga Eastern Link for NZ Transport Agency, Tauranga, Bay of Plenty – Fulton Hogan / HEB Construction Alliance
Tauranga Eastern Link provides a vital 21 km connection from Tauranga through to Paengaroa Junction and the road is a project of National Importance.
Since being awarded the design and construction in 2010 the Fulton Hogan HEB Construction Alliance has delivered this four lane highway in a careful, safety first approach, ahead of time, under budget, and has exceeded the New Zealand Transport Agency’s expectations and enhanced their reputation in the community. Collaboration of the team internally and externally with all the various stakeholders and the wider community have generated comments such as;
- “relationships between the Construction Alliance and the Agency, have been exemplar”
- ‘I think you guys do a brilliant job in communicating with us’
The project is large and complex, it consists of 6 Km of expressway and 15 Km of motorway, eight bridges, and 3 major interchanges, with many challenges and risks. Some of the highlights and clever approaches to these complex issues included;
- Dealing with a fire in a polystyrene embankment, lit by an arsonist, which was so badly damaged that the bridge had to be demolished and rebuilt. This was achieved with no impact on the overall programme.
- Developing a sand bag filling frame for 40 bags at once, to go into retaining wall construction. This enhanced safety and rate of filling considerably, saving some 50 days. This has an application in flood protection in other circumstances.
- Developing a “hairpin” to secure large diameter steel pile casings together, making stacks of the casings safer and take less room.
- Installing reversing and proximity cameras on some machines and installing high voltage sensors on booms of excavators working near high voltage lines.
Congratulations to NZTA, Fulton Hogan and HEB and the wider team a job well done and something you all can be very proud of.
The judges would also like compliment the other finalists on the quality of their entries in these awards and also the construction excellence of the projects which they have delivered and shown to us. We thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to visit your projects and to see your engineering excellence. Well done, you can be very proud.
Judges Peter Hay Steve Hart
