The IPWEA NSW Engineering Excellence Awards were presented at the Annual Conference Gala Dinner on 14 May 2007. These awards provide members with the opportunity to receive recognition for their projects in front of their peers, as well as providing the opportunity for resource sharing among Councils.
The award categories included:
- Design and/or Construction of a Local Government Public Works Project
- New or Improved Techniques (sponsored by the Roads & Transport Directorate)
- Innovation in Water Supply and Wastewater (sponsored by the Water Directorate)
- Occupational Health and Safety (sponsored by Komatsu Australia)
- The 3 Rs: Recovering, Recycling and Reusing
- Excellence in Road Safety Engineering (not awarded this year)
- Environmental Award (sponsored by Landcom)
- Local Government Excellence in Road Safety (sponsored by the Motor Accidents Authority)
Category 1: Design and/or Construction of a Local Government/Public Works Project
Winner: Parramatta City Council – Church Street Mall
A successful Local Government design and construction project to open the existing pedestrian Church Street Mall to traffic hinged on extensive consultation, promotion, an integrated communication and marketing strategy and a project based team who responded to the community’s needs.
Highly Commended: Canterbury City Council – Salt Pan Creek Reserve Wetland and Sutherland Shire Council – Sutherland Shire Centenary Park
Category 2: New or Improved Techniques (sponsored by the Roads & Transport Directorate)
Winner: Blacktown City Council – Addressing Skills Shortage and Asset Management
Following a number of staff movements and retirements, Blacktown City Council wanted to be proactive in addressing the loss of corporate experience and knowledge required to manage its largest asset – roads. The adopted approach was extremely effective in training 36 staff, producing a Road Pavement Evaluation Manual, evaluating 2,800 roads, analysing the network condition, and allowing the preparation of a prioritised Works Program for the next five years and financial forecasts for the next five, ten and 15 years.
Highly Commended: Blue Mountains City Council – Implementation of Electronic Workflow and Maintenance Management, and Forbes Shire Council – Construction of Pavey’s Red Bend Road
Category 3: Innovation in Water Supply and Wastewater (sponsored by the Water Directorate)
Winner: Port Macquarie-Hastings Council – Port Macquarie Reclaimed Water Scheme
The $12 million Port Macquarie Reclaimed Water Scheme will supply Council and businesses with an alternative, drought secure water source for non potable uses. Up to 15 per cent of tertiary treated effluent currently discharged will be further improved using advanced processes including micro filtration, reverse osmosis and UV disinfection. It will ease demand on tower water use while reducing the amount of treated effluent entering local waterways.
Highly Commended: Parkes Shire Council – Sustainable Parkes: A Demonstration Project for Holistic Water Cycle Planning and Infrastructure Delivery
Category 4: Occupational Health and Safety (sponsored by Komatsu Australia)
Winner: MidCoast Water – Lightweight Lockable Manhole Lids
The lifting and moving of manhole lids has been a manual handling risk in the water and sewerage industry for many years. To reduce this risk, MidCoast Water staff developed conceptual designs to work with a polyethylene manufacturer to produce a range of new lightweight, lockable and watertight manhole cover prototypes for approval.
Highly Commended: Moree Plains Shire Council – The Safety Challenge
Category 5: The three Rs: Recovering, Recycling and Reusing Award
Winner: Randwick City Council – State of the Art Reprocessing of Organic Garden Waste and Road Construction Material and Wastewater Reuse
Randwick Council’s new recycling centre is capable of processing up to 60,000 tonnes of construction and organic material into 16 high quality products for use by Local Government and external customers. A showcase wastewater reuse system is in place and has saved an excess of four million litres making the site almost 90 per cent self sufficient in its water requirements.
Category 7: Environmental Award (sponsored by Landcom)
Winner: MidCoast Water – Hallidays Point Sewerage Treatment Plant Upgrade
MidCoast Water has invested $16 million on the expansion of its Hallidays Point Sewerage Treatment Plant. The success of the project can be attributed to a mature project management planning and implementation system used in the delivery, and several award winning technology improvements made during the design.
Highly Commended: Narrandera Shire Council – Narrandera Wetlands
Category 8: Local Government Excellence in Road Safety (sponsored by the Motor Accidents Authority)
Congratulations to all those who won an award and also to those who submitted a nomination. The quality of the projects was very pleasing and IPWEA encourages you all to take advantage of this resource sharing opportunity by viewing the documents online at www.ipweanswconference.nsw.gov.au. For more information on the awards or the IPWEA NSW Conference, please view the website or email conference@ipwea.org.au.
