CCNZ / HIREPOOL CONSTRUCTION EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2015
Downer raises the mark
taking flood protection to a new level If news reports are to be believed, one-in-100-year floods are becoming increasingly common in New Zealand. It’s lucky then that the iconic St David Street to Union Street stretch of Dunedin’s Water of Leith has been re-engineered to cope with a one-in-200-year event!
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CATEGORY
PROJECT: Leith Flood Protection Scheme, Dunedin CONTRACTOR: Downer New Zealand
14 Civil Contractors NZ in association with Contractor magazine
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or Otago Regional Council, the need to improve flood protection in central Dunedun was essential. The combined flows of the Water of Leith and its Lindsay Creek tributary have flooded the local area and central business district on several occasions, causing millions of dollars of damage. So, after years of negotiations and planning, a tender was issued for a flood protection scheme that would see the existing river channel demolished and new embankments constructed. The historic St David Street Bridge was to be lengthened, and an attractive network of retaining walls, stairways and concrete paths built to link grassed terraces. The winner of the tender was Downer New Zealand. Led by Downer project manager Braydon Kelly, considerable people power was assigned to the job. Many balls had to be juggled. There were no less than 290 individual line items on the build programme. Important, for example, was the need to be sensitive to the heritage character of adjacent Otago University buildings; not to mention keeping a legion of university and local authority stakeholders happy. Top of mind also was the wellbeing of the river – a body of water
