New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards

Untangling Spaghetti Junction makes final cut

15 October 2007

Auckland’s Central Motorway Junction Core Area Upgrading has been announced as a category finalist in the 2007 New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards.

Designed by Beca and constructed by Fletcher Construction and Leighton Contractors, the project provided the missing links on Auckland’s Spaghetti Junction. In upgrading the existing motorway system and completing motorway links between the Northern, North Western and Port motorways this project finally realised the plans drawn in the 1960’s.

The project saw delivery of five new bridges, major upgrading and modifications to six existing bridges, 4.1 km of retaining walls, 33.0 lane-km of new pavements, and site-wide pavement overlays - all done with minimal disruption.

Located in New Zealand’s most heavily trafficked region, this project was an extremely high profile project effectively showcasing the depth of technical expertise in the New Zealand infrastructure engineering sector. It is considered to be the largest and most complex design and construct project in New Zealand.

The Central Motorway Junction Core Area Upgrading project was successfully delivered under a design and construct contract by the Complete Joint Venture – a joint venture between Fletcher Construction and Leighton Contractors with Beca as the lead designer.

Auckland residents now benefit from reduced noise through the use of low noise pavements and noise screens, improved air quality through shorter travel times, safer driving conditions and reduced fuel consumption.

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 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”.

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.

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