| 65 MTL NZ T T Kim Newth Award-winning recognition for work on Dam The dam required the highest level of design and quality assurance to ensure public safety. The new 53-metre high Waimea Community Dam, owned and operated by Waimea Water Ltd (WWL) is the largest dam built in New Zealand in the last 30 years. Providing 12m cumec water storage and supporting regional irrigation and local water supply security for generations to come, it is an important long term asset for Nelson Tasman region. The dam required the highest level of design and quality assurance to ensure public safety. In mid-2019, Damwatch Engineering (DWE) was engaged by WWL to take over dam safety and design optimisation so as to align with the latest international standards. MTL NZ Ltd and McMahon were engaged by DWE to enhance the mechanical and electrical (M&E) outlet works design, which resulted in a simplified and more robust configuration. Founded in 1994, Auckland based MTL is a specialist engineering consultancy for renewable energy, water, infrastructure and industrial projects. MTL has partnered with McMahon to deliver many large dam upgrade projects over the past 30 years including for Mercury, Genesis, Meridian and Watercare Services in New Zealand, plus AGL in Australia. The majority of these projects required close collaboration with Damwatch, whose team provide specialist dam safety and design peer review services. At the 2025 ACE Awards, the Waimea Community Dam design team received a Silver Award in recognition of their pivotal role in delivering this critical project for WWL. “The 2025 ACE accolade is an exciting achievement and recognition of our innovative, proactive and collaborative design team approach led by Damwatch Engineering,” says Don Purdie, MTL’s Principal Engineer. The location of the dam, close to the Alpine Fault, made it extremely challenging to design outlet works and select suitable pipework, valves and instruments that would meet required dam safety, performance and reliability objectives. The Covid pandemic added further challenges. MTL acknowledges the excellent design support provided by the M&E original equipment manufacturers (OEM) for the outlet works design. “Their specialist overseas knowledge was a key factor in achieving these objectives.” MTL worked with Maskell Engineering to design the flexible GRP intake pipework mounted on the dam face and Asmuss supplied heavy wall duplex stainless steel pipe for the embedded pipework in the dam face, where exposure to highly corrosive reservoir water conditions and limited access for maintenance were key considerations. MTL also worked closely with AVK, Erhard and Rotork to optimise the sizing and selection of the two high performance DN900 dam safety free discharge valves, each designed to discharge from 1.1 to 10 cumecs covering river augmentation, flushing and emergency dam dewatering duties. Together with McMahons, MTL regularly visited the dam site to inspect the M&E outlet works and provided a mechanical engineer during the later stages to support the Damwatch and WWL site engineers. “MTL and McMahon would like to recognise the high quality workmanship provided by Brightwater Engineering and Aotea Electrical for construction of the M&E outlet works,” says Chris Brown, MTL’s Design Manager. MTL and McMahon also provided commissioning support to WWL for the outlet works, including first operation of the dam safety and compensation flow control systems in early April 2024. “It was a pleasure to celebrate five years of teamwork with Damwatch Engineering at the 2025 ACE Awards,” says Holger Zipfel, MTL’s Managing Director. ENGINEERING Contact: Steve McInerney | Business Development Manager Tel: 04 381 1300 | Email: info@damwatch.co.nz DAMWATCH ENGINEERING | www.damwatch.co.nz Damwatch Engineering Ltd has worked closely with MTL NZ during the successful construction of the recently completed 53 metre high Waimea Community Dam. Damwatch is an engineering consultancy specialising in dam engineering and dam safety. We have a track record in successfully evaluating and developing solutions for critical hydro and water storage infrastructure projects throughout New Zealand and internationally. To support our clients in the North Island, we have opened of ces in Wellington and Auckland. The Damwatch team supports our clients with concept design development through consentingand detailed design to construction supervision, commissioning and with ongoing dam safety support during the lifespan of these vital assets. Damwatch is well placed to support dam owners to achieve compliance with the regulatory requirements and deadlines set out in the recent Building (Dam Safety) Regulations.
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