The Tauranga Harbour Link road project has won the supreme overall award at this year's Roading Excellence Awards.
The winners of the awards, sponsored by Roading New Zealand, were announced at a dinner last week in Wellington.
The NZ Transport Agency group manager Colin Crampton welcomed the news that three of the government agency’s projects had won awards including the supreme overall award.
The NZTA and its partners won the Greenstone Energy Excellence Award for a Major Road Project (over $25 million) for the Tauranga Harbour Link Stage 2 project. That project also scooped the supreme overall award for NZTA and its partners Beca and Fletcher Construction.
The Tauranga Harbour Link is the largest transportation project undertaken in the Bay of Plenty to date, providing a continuous four-lane expressway from Takitimu Drive through to Mount Maunganui. It included the construction of a new duplicate harbour bridge, a four-lane flyover and a new duplicate aerodrome bridge.
The project was completed three months ahead of schedule and under budget and has doubled the capacity of this critical harbour crossing, providing improved traffic flows, reduced journey times, and more efficient access to and from New Zealand’s largest port. It has also reduced congestion at several busy city intersections, and provides a safer and more scenic route for cyclists and pedestrians.
Mr Crampton said the Harbour Link was an essential piece of infrastructure in the strategic roading network and the project had greatly improved the connection to the port from the Waikato and Auckland.
Project manager Kevin Reid said that teamwork was the key to the success of the project. ‘All the team worked together to ensure everything ran smoothly and all customers were looked after during the work.”
The NZTA and its partners also won the gold award for best minor project for the realignment of State Highway 35 over Busby’s Hill near Tokomaru Bay. Its partners were Opus International Consultants and Fulton Hogan for the 1.3km realignment of the highway south of Tokomaru Bay.
Mr Crampton said the agency was delighted that its important work had been recognised by Roading New Zealand. The winners had all been examples of excellent planning and the successful delivery of complex roading projects.
“Roading projects are often difficult and many people work tirelessly to complete them on time and on budget. It is great to receive some recognition for the vital work the NZ Transport Agency and its contractors do in making our roads safer and more reliable.”
Another two NZTA projects were finalists in the awards, which aim to promote leadership, excellence and best practice in the provision of land transport infrastructure in New Zealand.
