NZTA's Tauranga Harbour Link Project takes out Engineering Excellence Supreme Award

Tauranga's Harbour Link Project was last night awarded the highest New Zealand engineering excellence honours taking out the Supreme Award at the New Zealand Engineering Excellence Award Dinner held in Wellington, reports the New Zealand Transport Agency.

The NZTA Tauranga Harbour Link project was selected from the winners of each of the other the New Zealand Engineering Excellence (NZEE) Project and Product Awards. The Award recognises the project as outstanding from the others in terms of its eminence and contribution to engineering in New Zealand.

Harbour Link was recognized from fifteen finalists in the projects and products awards beating out other great projects such as the Manukau Harbour Crossing and Te Rewa Rewa footbridge in New Plymouth.

The Tauranga Harbour Link project also received the NZEE's Transportation Infrastructure Award.

The $130m project was one of the largest transport projects ever constructed in New Zealand at its time and the largest for the Bay of Plenty before the construction of the NZTA's Tauranga Eastern Link (TEL) which commenced construction late last year.

The Harbour Link was acknowledged for helping to reshape an important transport corridor in Tauranga, and for providing an overall effective transport and freight route to the Port of Tauranga.

The Design and Construct project was delivered by Fletcher Construction Company Limited and URS New Zealand with the construction work monitored by NZTA's consultant BECA.

The New Zealand Engineering Excellence Supreme Award also recognises the technical engineering challenges that the project mitigated such as addressing soil conditions beneath the bridge's structure and for minimising the impact of the project to the environment and to stakeholders.

The Tauranga Harbour Link Project has also won other top awards including Roading New Zealand's Roading Excellence Award in 2010.