New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards

Upper South Island power project a NZ engineering excellence award finalist

15 October 2007

When Transpower completed upgrading the foundations on 160 transmission towers, it improved the security of electricity supply to homes and businesses in the upper South Island.

This project was announced a category finalist 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.

Much of New Zealand’s power transmission infrastructure was built during the 1960’s and 1970’s. The National Grid that was created included networks of lines connecting power stations to substations which supply electricity to local networks who supply electricity to consumers.

Increasing energy demand, new loading standards as well as routine upgrading and maintenance resulted in a number of lines on the National Grid being upgraded – with necessary design reviews of both the towers and tower foundations. Considering the growing pressure and reliance on existing networks, some parts of the network were working close to capacity and the need for robust and reliable structures to carry transmission lines became critical.

Transpower’s contractors, BBR Contech, began upgrading in early 2006 to strengthen the more heavily loaded foundations on 160 towers: 88 between Hanmer Springs and St Arnaud, 11 between Ashley and Waipara in North Canterbury, and 61 between Blenheim and Stoke. This project is associated with selected towers on the 220 kV transmission line running from Islington substation near Christchurch to the Kikiwa substation near St Arnaud, and the 110 kV transmission line running between the Blenheim and Stoke substations.

The project faced a number of challenges including: physical work being undertaken on a site covering some 450km through a vast range of environmental conditions, with difficult and restricted access and limited communication channels; rapidly changing weather and working within a conservation area.

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