HEB Construction

CATEGORY 3: Projects with a value between $10 million and $50 million

Whitewater rafting at its best

The Wero Whitewater Park is our first purpose-built artificial white water facility and will host its first international event, the World Masters Games, next year. Construction of the first stage of the Wero Whitewater Park started in September 2014 and the project was completed on April 8 2016, two working days ahead of programme. It was built by HEB Construction for Second Nature Charitable Trust (formerly known as Counties Manukau Pacific Trust) and it cost $25 million. HEB Construction says it was a “thrilling” and unique project and it is proud of the role that it played in its successful construction.

CATEGORY The project was procured as a Lump CONSTRUCTION EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2016 WINNER 3 CATEGORY 3 Sum Contract with Early Contractor Involvement model. HEB collaborated with the client, a large number of consultants, suppliers, subcontractors and stakeholders throughout the extensive planning and construction of this very complex design. “It was a combined effort of HEB’s Civils and Structures teams, whose pool of skills and experience was the key to our top-quality, on-time and withinbudget delivery of this international standard facility,” says the company.

The main components of the system include a large 22 million litre pond or reservoir, which feeds the two whitewater courses via a large pump station.

The project had multiple work-fronts on a difficult and tightly constrained site and involved 100,000 cubic metres of earthworks, 7500 cubic metres of concrete, utilities, ground improvements, bridges, roading, mechanical and electrical and building works.

“The end result is pretty stunning, and John Felton [the world’s whitewater course guru] has told us that it is the best finish he has seen on any of the whitewater parks he has been involved with, including the Sydney, London and Brazil Olympic courses,” says HEB.

“The project has been a massive achievement and we are very satisfied with what we achieved in such a short space of time. The client wanted a world-class facility and that is what we believe we delivered to a very high standard.

“The project was very complicated and has required a tremendous amount of planning and programming.” l