Two Golder Associates projects, one of them in Australia, have been recognised at the international Ground Engineering (GE) Awards, receiving ‘Highly Commended’ (runner-up) and ‘Commended’ in the category of ‘International Project of the Year’ at the annual awards’ event held recently at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.


The GE Awards showcase the best in geotechnical and geo-environmental innovation, practice and inspiration. Individual engineers, companies and projects are recognised; with the winners decided by a panel of academics, industry professionals and the editor of the New Civil Engineer magazine.

Golder received ‘Highly Commended’ for the Port Botany Expansion (PBE) project in Sydney for the Sydney Ports Corporation and ‘Commended’ for the Dudley Ward Rock Fall Protection Works (Dudley Ward) project in Gibraltar.

“The fact that two vastly different Golder projects from different sides of the globe have been recognised at the GE Awards is testament to our global commitment to technical and service excellence,” said Stewart Lightbody, Golder’s Project Director for the Dudley Ward project.

The PBE project will almost double the capacity of Australia’s second largest container port and create five new ‘post-panamax’ shipping berths.

Throughout the PBE project, Golder provided geotechnical design and construction supervision services to the Baulderstone – Jan de Nul Construction team, with Hyder Consulting completing structural design and Scott Wilson URS the marine design.

“It was a tremendous honour to stand alongside so many outstanding projects. PBE has become a flagship project for Golder and it is wonderful for our team to receive this international recognition,” said Golder’s construction team leader for PBE, Jamie McIlquham.

The PBE project involved:

 

  • Reclamation of 63 ha of land by placement of 7M m3 of dredged hydraulic fill.
  • Complex ground improvement and earthworks design.
  • Work within a large multi-disciplinary team in design and construction supervision roles.
  • Extensive ground investigation and numerical geotechnical modelling associated with the construction and placement of 21.5 m high concrete counterfort structures to form 2 km of new wharf.


For the Dudley Ward project, Golder worked with Clark Smith Partnership (CSP), CAN Geotechnical, BAM Nuttall, Sharrock Shand, Profield and government engineers.

“It’s true to say that this project is one that we will remember fondly as being a joint effort which ran seamlessly, professionally and with mutual respect by all involved at Golder, GoG and CSP. It’s hoped by CSP that we all continue to work closely together,” said Managing Director of CSP, David Clark. 



Golder provided detailed investigation and design for a tunnel and road scheme, which involved:

  • Construction of a 100 m rock fall canopy extending from the rock tunnel portal.
  • Construction of 400 m high capacity catch fences adjacent the northern approach road to the tunnel.
  • Earthworks comprising excavation, processing and placement of over 40,000 m3 of material during various phases.
  • Demolition of a single lane road and adjacent structures to allow construction of a new improved two way highway.


Top honours on the night went to Gammon Construction for the Removal of a buried seawall at Marina Bay South, Singapore.