WSP picks up Australasian asset management award wins

Held Wednesday evening at Adelaide Convention Centre, a joint team of transport, construction and engineering organisations, including WSP, won the Excellence in Asset Management Award and the Australasia Public Works Project of the Year Award for a project looking at the investment needed to keep our State Highways up to scratch. WSP, Far North District Council and Marshall Projects Ltd. upgrade of the Paihia Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Far North won the Excellence in Project Innovation Award.

The State Highway project took 18 months to complete. Delivered under the umbrella of charitable organisation Infrastructure Decision Support (IDS) under WSP leadership, the project drew together 14 industry organisations and all 23 Network Outcome Contract teams (NOCs).

WSP Tauranga-based technical director for asset management Elke Beca says the project team was charged with answering the ‘billion dollar’ question of how much investment is needed to maintain our State Highways for the next three years and beyond and helping decision makers understand the impact of investment on road safety - ultimately, helping save lives.

Elke describes the work as being a “pinnacle project” and an exemplar for industry collaboration. It’s outstanding for it to be recognised as the best in Australasia for excellence in asset management.

“New Zealand’s roading investment has been through a period of austerity and our $50 billion State Highway asset has been stretched beyond its acceptable serviceability. This project has provided a significant justification in funding to get our roading back up to speed and is set to benefit generations to come.

“The project was a great example of industry-wide engagement. Its outcomes are now embedded in every single [transport] supplier's way of working and has resulted in more money being spent on the maintenance and operation of roads in New Zealand,” she says.

WSP Auckland-based technical principal for wastewater treatment Andrew Springer says the Paihia Treatment Plant project was driven by the need to improve the habitat of the Northland mudfish – a threatened species found in only three places, including a wetland adjacent to the plant.

Following years of concern about elevated levels of ammonia and nitrogen levels in the wetland, a WSP-led team set to work drafting technical specifications and applying ‘Bio-Shell’ technology to the plant’s treatment pond.

Bio-Shell technology consists of concentrically nested shells infused with air. These were submerged in the pond. As water flows through, bacterial biofilms reduce the amount of ammonia and nitrogen in wastewater discharges.

The $6.5 million project was delivered for the client – Far North District Council – ahead of schedule and saw an immediate improvement in water quality.

Andrew says the plant has been upgraded to some of the most rigorous consent standards in the country – at a fraction of the cost and carbon footprint of what it would have taken to build a new treatment plant in another location.

“Being recognised as the best in Australia and New Zealand shows just how WSP can help clients achieve sound environmental outcomes by thinking differently and applying innovative techniques and technologies,” he says.