| 43 T T Hugh de Lacy One of the industry’s biggest accolades The pathway project was designed in four sections, of which Oxcon CLL’s award-winning contribution was the $30m Section Two. CONTRACTING CCNZ Awards: Oxcon CLL It’s called “The Shared Path of Land and Sea” (Te Ara ki Uta ki Tai), and Oxcon CLL’s completion of a second section of the spectacular 7km long pedestrian and cycle pathway between Auckland’s eastern suburbs and the southern shores of the Waitemata Harbour has landed it one of the industry’s most prestigious accolades. The judges in this year’s CCNZ Hirepool Construction Excellence Awards declared Oxcon CLL the outright winner of Category Four, for projects between $20m and $100m. The pathway project was designed in four sections, of which Oxcon CLL’s award-winning contribution was the $30m Section Two between St Johns and Orakei, connecting the already completed Sections One and Three. Section Two, completed in May last year, comprises two large concrete bridges, one of them featuring a gravity-defying 190m span over the Main Trunk Line, and the other being a 100m long structure crossing a gully near the John Rymer Reserve. As well as the bridges, the $30m project included a 650m boardwalk in Poerewa Valley connecting to a 900m one in Section Three. For Section Two, the company was able to deliver a value engineering solution for the elevated marine boardwalks that shaved several million dollars off the construction cost without affecting the look, quality, standards, size or final finish of the project – something that would no doubt have caught the judges’ eyes. The boardwalk over the Pourewa Valley was particularly tricky to build because a slew of streams and ecological and archaeological areas made access for piling difficult, so Oxcon CLL designed and developed a precision ground-based construction methodology that allowed it to avoid infringing on the sensitive areas. To cap it all off the company completed the project well ahead of the target date, and was additionally able to offer the client options to create further connections to existing paths at Meadowbank and Kohimarama. More than two-thirds of the work that Oxcon CLL did on the pathway had to be performed under the pressure of Covid restrictions, not to mention industry-wide shortages of labour and materials that were wrecking other companies’ timetables. The latter achievement earned the company a significant plaudit from Rob Buckton of the Waka Kotahi Critical Risk Team, who described the project as “The best site I have visited for compliance with Covid 19 controls.” For Matt Mules, Oxon CLL’s General Manager, the Glen Innes to Tamaki Drive shared path was “a landmark for the company,” even without the CCNZ award. “It was a particularly complex project with many unique challenges, and we were especially proud of the judges’ comments about the high levels of collaboration and innovation we brought to the project. “They also noted the high quality standards we achieved, which they said were the result of effective planning, innovative thinking, skilled people and a high-performing team.” Oxcon and CLL (Contract Landscapes Ltd) started life separately but came together to work collaboratively on a succession of projects with a total worth of $90m over five years. CLL had been established in 1989 as a civil and structural contractor by Terry Donnelly, who assembled a multi-skilled staff and a fleet of highly specialized plant for excavation, draining and piling work, and targeted the particularly challenging projects that other companies tended to shy away from. Terry remains as one of the owners, and also serves as a director of Ocon CLL. Oxcon was formed in 2012 by a group of Auckland civil construction engineers whose varied skills made a perfect fit with CLL, and the two companies made the links formal by forming Oxcon CLL in 2021.
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