80 | CONTRACTING Wilson Contractors T T Russell Fredric Award recognition for Stead St project Pivotal to the project was the protection of critical infrastructure from extreme weather events and high sea levels. Wilson Contractors came up trumps at the Civil Contractors New Zealand Southland branch awards held in Invercargill last October. The company won the Komatsu Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering Projects for its role in the Stead Street Invercargill civil works package undertaken for Invercargill City Council. The wider project involved installing a heightened sheet pile floodwall along the Invercargill Estuary northern boundary, with Wilson Contracting’s work involving placing footpaths, kerb and channel, water main, as a sub-contractor to HEB Construction. Parts of this work such as asphalting, kerbing and channelling was in turn subcontracted by Wilson Contractors. Pivotal to the project was the protection of critical infrastructure from extreme weather events and high sea levels, including Invercargill Airport. The section of Stead St under the contract is a 1.2 kilometre long road corridor with a walk/ cycleway on the estuary side, and wetland/ farmland on the opposite north side, part of which leads to the southern perimeter of Invercargill Airport. As well as providing access to the airport, Stead St links the city to the bush suburb of Otatara and Oreti Beach beyond. Wilson Contracting site engineer Cody McKenzie says that the combination of these factors and the nature of the ground conditions presented a few challenges and not only for the contractors; having to make the Stead St corridor one-way during construction was also difficult for residents of Otatara and others who had a 20 minute detour to travel into the city. “The ground conditions were quite sandy, then we had fibre and telecoms to contend with on the north side which ran through a temporary footpath we put in as well. “For the water main we only had a six or eight hour window to get it shut off and complete our link into the existing main and get it going again because of the [needs of] the airport.” There was also limited manoeuvring space for contractor’s vehicles and machinery to operate and further, the timeline for the project was shortened to alleviate the inconvenience of the long detour. Started in November 2021, the project was completed June 2022. Apart from the award recognition, the nature of the project and its scale was significant for Wilson Contractors, as the company historically undertook more three waters projects than roading and roading-related work, Cody says. “Time-frame wise and resource wise it was big for us at the time.” Southland regional manager Hamish Lindsay says the Stead St project is just one example of how crucial the civil engineering and contracting industry is to cities, regions and to the nation as a whole and a considerable amount of work is ultimately unseen. “It doesn’t quite get the recognition sometimes that it deserves by the public because a lot of what we do is buried or hidden. “It’s not the visual monument that other industries get to leave behind.” Despite this, most that work in the industry are proud of what they do, and in the case of the Stead St project, there is the benefit of a visual legacy of what was achieved. “The staff that have been involved can drive past it and can say ‘I was involved in that’.” Address: PO Box 1614, Invercargill 9840 E: karlhawkes@outlook.com www.allancontracting.co.nz • Subdivisions • Footpaths • Commercial Carparks • Residential Carparks • Patios • Concrete Driveways • BBQ Areas CONTRACTING FOR YOUR MACHINE LAID KERBING & ALL YOUR CONCRETE NEEDS ALLAN Karl Hawkes - 027 407 0745 ON TIME & IN BUDGET Call MARK KELLY 0274382365 KERB CENTRAL MARK@KERBCENTRAL.CO.NZ For all your commercial & residential kerbing needs in the central otago area. Also specialising in driveways, footpaths & patios. Talk to us today, the feature profile experts Phone: 03 983 5500 waterfordpress.co.nz PROFILE YOUR PROJECT...
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