CCNZ / HIREPOOL CONSTRUCTION EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2015
Innovative approach to
a build of national significance Fulton Hogan HEB Construction Alliance first broke ground on the NZTA’s TEL project in November 2010. Two hundred and forty two weeks later the $335 million design and build project is done and dusted, four months ahead of schedule and considerably under the client’s initial budget.
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CONSTRUCTION EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2015
WINNER CATEGORY 4
PROJECT: Tauranga Eastern Link, Tauranga CONTRACTOR: Fulton Hogan HEB Construction Alliance (FHHCA)
38 Civil Contractors NZ in association with Contractor magazine
T
EL is one of the New Zealand Transport Agency’s (NZTA) Roads of National Significance and the sheer scope of the work completed is daunting. In its simplest expression, TEL involved building 21 kilometres of four lane median highway, a six kilometre upgrade of existing highway, 15 kilometres of tolled motorway, an electronic freeflow tolling system, eight bridges, and the installation of new interchanges, overbridges and underpasses. Sound straightforward? Nothing on that scale ever is. For one thing the project was littered with challenges, including complex ground conditions, a build environment (which included significant amounts of high voltage power lines, major gas and water mains and variable substrata), and a destructive fire (which required part of the Domain Road Bridge to be deconstructed and rebuilt). Fulton Hogan HEB Construction Alliance also had to deal with approximately 23,000 vehicles daily travelling through one major intersection. The project’s statistics alone are impressive. For example, it required over three million metres of earthworks, approximately 550,000 square metres of new road to be laid and a design that incorporated some 300,000 plants. Project director Andrew Johnson says the whole team had to be innovative in a number of ways. Looking back, he says what
