Addington Cluster project wins environmental sustainability award
31 August 2007
An innovative new design for dealing with storm water in an environmentally-friendly way has earned a national award for the Christchurch City Council and national contracting company City Care Ltd.
The Addington Cluster project, a join venture between the Council and City Care, won the InfraTrain New Zealand Industry Best Practice Award for Environmental Sustainability at the 2007 Roading New Zealand Excellence Awards this week.
In presenting the award, Roading New Zealand recognised the innovation and engineering excellence associated with the Addington Cluster project completed in June this year.
Mayor Garry Moore says the concept is an innovative approach to improving stormwater and as it incorporates local urban features such as planting and artwork it has transformed a drainage system into a community asset.
“Faced with more stringent legislative measure to improve stormwater quality before disposal, the team’s solution further improves current treatment methods and integrates them with urban design,’’ says Mr Moore.
Kevin Mara, Council Capital Programmes General Manager, says “We are leaders in the country with our emphasis on environmental sustainability and the project has attracted international interest. Council designers came up with the “rain garden’’ system which they implemented with contractors City Care and the result is an interesting roading project which is a reflection of how the natural environment can be incorporated into a roading construction project.’’
City Care’s Roading Divisional Manager, Peter Hansby says “The award is an excellent example of the mutual success that can be achieved when client and contractor work together in a positive and constructive partnership. City Care, in partnership with the Christchurch City Council, is proud to be formally recognised by our peers for leading operational and environmental best practice within the roading industry.”
The project’s objective was to improve the quality of stormwater run-off entering waterways within a number of streets in the residential suburb of Addington. Six residential streets were reconstructed and landscaping undertaken including a first flush pond, rain gardens and a vegetated swale.
“Using these innovative features to deal with stormwater was an important part of upgrading Addington’s streets and public spaces to a standard appropriate to today’s needs, whilst still maintaining their heritage”, says Mr Hansby.
The project blended water-sensitive urban design principles with urban development strategies. It also provided a practical example of how stormwater can be seen as an asset, he says. Construction began in January 2006 and was completed in June this year. On-going water quality monitoring will begin soon
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