Northern Gateway Toll Road Wins Engineering Excellence Award
25 November 2010
The Northern Gateway Alliance partners; NZ Transport Agency, Fulton Hogan Ltd, Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd, URS New Zealand Ltd, Tonkin & Taylor Ltd and Boffa Miskell are celebrating a win in the Transportation Infrastructure category of the New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards.
The Northern Gateway Toll Road is a 7.5-kilometre section of motorway that traverses land of steep topography which includes significant waterways, and sites of ecological and historic significance. The road stretches from the Orewa turnoff to Puhoi, bypassing the seaside townships of Orewa, Hatfield's Beach, Waiwera and the Wenderholm Regional Park.
The project is multi-faceted, involving tunnels, bridges of unique design, major culverts and substantial earthworks. Best-practice environmental engineering methods were used to protect sensitive environmental areas both during construction and on an ongoing basis. The road user is greeted with panoramic views of iconic structures and the stunning landscape.
The alignment chosen allows heavy vehicles to maintain a much greater speed, reducing the differential speed to light vehicles, with benefits for road safety. Travel times are shortened and traffic congestion on the Hibiscus Coast Highway is reduced.
The project involved the first known application in New Zealand of pre-cast segmental box girder construction, using a self-launching overhead gantry for erecting pre-cast segments by a balanced cantilever method to form the Waiwera viaducts. The Hillcrest bridge is a unique structure formed to the contours of the land.
The awards were presented at a gala dinner in Wellington hosted by Linda Clark and attended by more than 350 people.
Initiated in 2005, the New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are the premier awards for the engineering professionals of New Zealand. The awards are presented in two major areas: Awards Recognising People, that recognise leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship and our young engineers; and Project and Product Awards, which recognise achievement in the various industry areas, together with a Supreme Award for the best of the Project and Product winners.