New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards

Reconstructed road rallies engineering success

05 October 2007

The reconstruction of State Highway 1 at Hihitahi Bluffs 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.

Completed by Opus International Consultants, the Hihitahi realignment on State Highway 1 is a 3.5 km section between Taihape and Waiouru and a notorious accident blackspot. It featured winding curves, poor sight distances and long periods of icing due to prolonged shading causing frequent ice-related accidents.

The route was realigned and taken across the Hautapu River, eliminating dangerous corners, improving sight distances and reducing the ice problem. It required two new highway viaducts and the old Hautapu Bridge was replaced. Later, a new passing lane just north of the Hihitahi Bluff project was incorporated into the project.

The area surrounding the project included a trout spawning river of exceptional water quality, areas of archaeological interest, a scenic reserve and many sites of cultural significance to two local iwi.
Considering the range of stakeholder interests specific design parameters were developed and included: the road and bridges were designed with minimal impact on the scenic reserve; trees were removed by careful selection in consultation with iwi and DoC and; waahi tapu (historically significant sites) were identified with iwi assistance.

The reconstructed route opened in December 2006, and since then the number and severity of accidents occurring on this stretch has reduced. The route’s improved safety has also been anecdotally recorded by local residents who are no longer called upon to attend the frequent accidents that occurred previously.

Around 5000 motorists use this section of the highway every day; with the number almost doubling during holiday seasons.

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.

“This project made the finalist cut because it is an outstanding example 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