66 | CONTRACTING Egypt Civil Construction T T Virginia Wright Complex bridge project a challenge A temporary pile clamp and a working platform enabled the team to safely work on the piles nine metres above the flood-prone Waihopai River while constructing the necessary pile caps. The recently completed bridge across the Waihopai Valley, which was tendered and built by Egypt Civil Construction, has been recognised with an innovation award. The company is owned and operated by Mary and Jaden Barnett, working out of Nelson. Their combined careers in civil construction dovetail nicely, with Mary’s extensive experience as a civil engineer being complemented by Jaden’s skills and experience honed over many years working his way up through the ranks to site supervisor on large, complex civil construction projects. They had already been in business together for 10 years when they successfully tendered for the Waihopai Bridge, otherwise known as Bridge 256, a testament not only to their own combined skillsets, but to their ability to work in close collaboration with other contractors to bring a package together. “It’s a $2.5 million, 110-metre single-lane bridge, which is the largest project we’ve done to date. It was a design and construct contract for a remote location, so once Jaden and I had looked at the site we worked closely with CDT Consultants and Thelins to come up with a concept design for the bridge,” explains Mary. This enabled Mary and Jaden to devise the methodology and pull together the different logistics of equipment, materials, labour and, not least, a risk assessment of the project’s complexities, which were further underlined by the hard deadline for when the temporary Bailey Bridge was scheduled to be removed. The possibility of another flood in the riverbed while Bridge 256 was being built was real, and it posed a risk to any scaffolding they might be using. Knowing the width of the river bed (seven spans of bridge over six piles), Jaden’s site experience was invaluable as he and Mary assessed the likelihood of a specific pile being affected by an area of river flooding while they were working on it – just one of the many variables taken into account to come up with a workable programme they were confident would hit their deadline. They problem-solved the risk of nine-metrehigh scaffolding, and it having to be removed by people coming to the remote site in the event of a flood forecast, with all its potential health and safety hazards, by avoiding using it altogether. After consultation with the Robert Bird Group and Trinder Engineering they devised a system that involved a temporary pile clamp and a working platform, which enabled the team to safely work on the piles nine metres above the flood-prone Waihopai River while constructing the necessary pile caps. This solution put them alongside other winners at the Civil Contractors New Zealand Nelson Marlborough Contractor Awards for exceptional infrastructure projects that enhance flood resilience and protect communities, taking out the Avada Traffic NZ Innovation Award 2025. The judging panel congratulated Egypt Limited and said that this was the “greatest challenge for the company to date”. For Mary, the key to successfully meeting this challenge was their close collaboration with other companies to round out the team. “We’re a civil company working across the top of South Island, but this is the first opportunity we’ve had to build a bridge of this size because they don’t come up every day,” she says. “We were extremely proud to be in a position to tender the work and successfully complete it with our project team and all the subcontractors we worked with very closely.” The new bridge, which hit all its construction marks, has proven instrumental in bringing Egypt Civil Construction to the table when there are large, complex, civil construction projects. “Clients can see for themselves how well the team from Egypt can put their combined skills and experience to work, as they collaborate with designers, engineers and suppliers alike to achieve exactly what they set out to do. Trinder Engineers proudly supporting Egypt Civil Construction with expert engineering services — from design to fabrication and installation. Through strong local collaboration, our partnership delivers innovative solutions to the infrastructure and construction industries. • Ful l Design, Research & Development Capabi l i ty • Ful l Workshop and Mobi le Engineer ing Operat ions • Fleet (Heavy Transport ) • Structural Engineer ing including Bui ldings and Inf rastructure • Machinery Design and Manufacture CONTACT US : NATHAN@TR I NDER . CO . NZ WWW. TR I NDER . CO . NZ PH . 03 544 8024
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