New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards

Huntly’s new haven made engineering excellence finalist

17 October 2007

Lake Puketerini was once the ugly remains of a mining operation, now the beautification project can claim a category finalist position in the 2007 New Zealand Engineering Excellence (NZEE) Awards today.

The third New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are the premier awards for New Zealand engineering professionals. The awards are presented in two major areas: Individual Awards, that recognise leadership, entrepreneurship, and our young engineers; and Category Awards, that recognise achievement in the various industry areas, together with a Supreme Award for the best of the Category winners.

Solid Energy New Zealand Ltd closed mining operations at Huntly’s Weavers Pit in 1994. All that remained was a scarred landscape and an overburdened waste dump no longer operable as a mine.
Solid Energy and Maunsell Ltd converted the land into a lake. Protecting existing infrastructure and natural resources in the district such as the Huntly Township, a Transpower substation, the Rotowaro railway and Lake Waahi was critical. Complying with mine lake discharge water quality criteria and creating a healthy lake useful to the community were also important.

Maunsell’s innovative approach to the conversion met the client’s objectives and saved over $2 million in capital works expenditure. The engineering works have minimised environmental impacts and enhanced the surrounding area while protecting the neighbouring infrastructure and natural resources.

Lake Puketerini is now an important recreational facility for the Huntly community and is fast becoming a new home for local bird and plant life. It provides a 54 hectare lake for recreational use such as swimming, boating, water skiing and waka racing, and is also used by the New Zealand Commercial Diver Training School who explore the 64 m deep lake as part of their training.

David Elms, Convenor of the Category Awards judging panel said that the calibre of finalist projects highlighted the contribution that professional engineers make to New Zealand on a social, economic and environmental scale.

“These projects made the finalist cut because they each are outstanding examples of engineering innovation”, says Mr Elms. “This year’s finalists impressed the judges by demonstrating how their projects contributed to the national economy and the reputation of New Zealand engineering and impacted on quality of life in their communities”.

Winners of both individual and category awards will be announced at a black-tie gala dinner at TE PAPA, Wellington on Wednesday, 21 November 2007.

The New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are hosted by a consortium of five partners and 10 contributing organisations. The partners are: Centre for Advanced Engineering (CAE); Association of Local Government Engineering New Zealand Incorporated (INGENIUM); Electricity Engineers Association of New Zealand (EEA); Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand (ACENZ); and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Inc (IPENZ).

Media enquiries contact:

Verona-Meiana Putaranui, NZEE Awards Media Co-ordinator

Email: media@ipenz.org.nz

Phone: +64 4 473 2028 or Cell: +64 21 479885