Gold award won for flood protection project

Environment Canterbury and Good Earth Matters Consulting have won a national engineering award of excellence. The $40 million Waimakariri Flood Protection Project won praise for its community consultation, planning, project management and resource consent work.

The Gold award, given by the Association of Consulting Engineers New Zealand (Inc), was for recognition of an outstanding project.

The Waimakariri Flood Protection Project was started because of the significant flood risk posed by the Waimakariri River, says Ian Heslop, Environment Canterbury principal engineer.

The project is designed to significantly reduce the threat to life, property, and infrastructure from the river, which has the potential to cause up to $8 billion damage in Christchurch, Kaiapoi, and surrounding areas.

Good Earth Matters Consulting was engaged by Environment Canterbury to project manage this complex scheme.

“Good Earth Matters and Environment Canterbury engineers developed robust systems and processes which enabled design, consultation and consent applications to be progressed concurrently and delivered within a seven month timeframe,” Ian Heslop says.

The consent process involved four consenting authorities: Waimakariri and Selwyn District Councils, Christchurch City Council, and Environment Canterbury. The project has now obtained all necessary consents without any appeals to the Environment Court.

“The effort the team put into planning and community consultation has certainly been worthwhile. We are very pleased with progress so far, and the recognition given by fellow members of the engineering profession. Our focus is now on preparing for the start of construction this year.”

David Bridges, Good Earth Matters project engineer, says it has been one of the most rewarding, satisfying and iconic projects he has worked on.

“The reason is simply the quality of the team which we worked with at Environment Canterbury and the commitment that everyone had to delivering the outcomes for the community.”

The project will take approximately ten years to complete. Works start in late spring this year, and include upgrading existing stopbanks, enhancing rock protection and constructing a secondary stopbanking system.