Eureka Bend reinstatement project wins national award
Fulton Hogan's Golden Bay award-winning team: "They can all be proud of what they did."
The Eureka Bend Reinstatement Project on the Takaka Hill, completed by the Golden Bay branch of Fulton Hogan won the Goughs Excellence Award for a Minor Road Project (under $4 million) at the recent 2009 Roading Excellence Awards. The trophy and certificate were presented to some of the key players in the project at a recent gala dinner in Wellington.
The 9000 man-hour project involved constructing a 6300 cubic metre mechanically-stabilised earth slope and the removal of a Bailey bridge to reinstate the road to two lanes. The bridge had been installed two years previously to traverse a major slip that threatened to completely isolate the Golden Bay community.
“Stabilising the road meant excavating a 13 metre-deep, 120 metre-long, near-vertical cut under the Bailey bridge foundations,” said Fulton Hogan maintenance manager Gavin Stobie. “The tricky thing was that to get down to a solid rock foundation, we had to stabilise the slope after every two metres of excavation.”
Twenty-two hundred metres of soil nails went into the face before the mechanically- stabilised earth slope was constructed. It used 14,000 tonnes of quarried black marble rock.
Just 16 weeks after works commenced, the Bailey bridge was removed and the road to Golden Bay was restored to two lanes. The project was completed on time and under budget which pleased the client, the New Zealand Transport Agency. The Golden Bay community’s fears of being cut off during the busy tourist season were allayed as well.
Colin Crampton, group manager of Highways and Network Operations for NZTA said, “The NZTA is particularly pleased by the result achieved by this team, which worked with us to produce an outstanding result. The pride in the finished product is evident and the local community is thrilled to have their road restored to full service.”
Mr Stobie said that the award really belonged to the Golden Bay workers who worked hard to complete the project. He singled out Kevin Bruning, the site manager, and Patrick Bruning, the foreman of the wall-building for special praise.
“Our Golden Bay men all deserve credit,” he said. “They worked very long hours, around 70 hours a week for most of the job. The work got done when it had to, as well. If a certain stage came ready and it was Sunday afternoon, the guys got stuck into it then and there. They can all be proud of what they did. The recognition they got is richly deserved.”
Kevin Bruning and his team were pleased with the success of the project and said that it was nice to be given the recognition through the award as well.
“It’s our Hill and it’s our road, so I guess it’s our job to fix it up,” said Kevin.
Neil Wilson
