WYONG Council is in the running to win another engineering award for the Mardi-Mangrove Link project, having been listed as a finalist in the Engineers Australia, Sydney Division Excellence Awards.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The $120 million water harvesting project is a marvel of modern engineering.
In simple terms, it is a series of pumps and 21 kilometres of pipes that enable more water to be harvested from Wyong River in times of high-water levels, then pumped from the small Mardi Dam to the massive Mangrove Creek Dam.
Prior to the project's 2011 completion, millions of litres of rainwater was being lost to the ocean.
Project manager Rod Jewell said the two key engineering innovations in the link were relatively new to the water industry.
The first was the horizontal directional drilling to lay 260 metres of pipe under Wyong River. The second was the cutter soil mixing method used to construct an almost water-tight wall around the area to be excavated for the river pumping station.
"The innovations not only saved us time and money but they also reduced the environmental impact and safety risk for construction workers," Mr Jewell said.
Wyong Council, Gosford City Council and the technical designers GHD have been jointly nominated for the award.
In May, the council and its project partner Gosford City Council won the Innovation in Water Supply and Wastewater award at the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (NSW) conference.
■ Winners of the Engineers Australia Awards will be announced in Sydney, on September 20.
