16 October 2007

Sewer project effort not wasted

Auckland’s Hillsborough Pilot Sewer Rehabilitation Programme was announced a category finalist in the 2007 New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards today.

The third New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are the premier awards for New Zealand engineering professionals. The awards are presented in two major areas: Individual Awards, that recognise leadership, entrepreneurship, and our young engineers; and Category Awards, that recognise achievement in the various industry areas, together with a Supreme Award for the best of the Category winners.

The Hillsborough Pilot Sewer Rehabilitation Programme is located at Hillsborough, Auckland and was completed by engineering consultancy GHD.

In line with its urban sustainability objective and drive for environmental improvement, Metrowater developed this programme to reduce the excessive flows in and overflows in wet weather to the environment from its wastewater systems. It is currently developing a citywide inflow and infiltration management programme to achieve this objective.

The worldwide scarcity of reliable data within the industry upon which to plan such a programme meant GHD was engaged by Metrowater to carry out a pilot Sewer Rehabilitation Programme in the Hillsborough and Waikowhai areas. The objective of this study was to determine the likely extents of inflow and infiltration reduction that could be achieved and the associated costs for different levels of wastewater system rehabilitation.

The outputs of this investigation are worldwide industry-leading research that will enable Metrowater to better and more reliably plan its citywide inflow and infiltration management strategy.
David Elms, Convenor of the Category Awards judging panel said that the calibre of finalist projects highlighted the contribution that professional engineers make to New Zealand on a social, economic and environmental scale.

“These projects made the finalist cut because they each are outstanding examples of engineering innovation”, says Mr Elms. “This year’s finalists impressed the judges by demonstrating how their projects contributed to the national economy and the reputation of New Zealand engineering and impacted on quality of life in their communities”.

Winners of both individual and category awards will be announced at a black-tie gala dinner at TE PAPA, Wellington on Wednesday, 21 November 2007.

The New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are hosted by a consortium of five partners and 10 contributing organisations. The partners are: Centre for Advanced Engineering (CAE); Association of Local Government Engineering New Zealand Incorporated (INGENIUM); Electricity Engineers Association of New Zealand (EEA); Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand (ACENZ); and the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Inc (IPENZ).