Hampshire schemes win Engineering Excellence Awards
Hampshire County Council has scooped three awards at the ICE (Institution of Civil Engineers) South East Awards.
Major Scheme Award for Operation Restore
Operation Restore won the Major Scheme Award, with the judges particularly impressed with the shift in strategy in highways maintenance from traditional reactive work to an approach based on planned structural maintenance using the principles of asset management to deliver long term efficiency and improved roads for the future. Operation Restore was carried out with Amey and Tarmac.
Benefits to large community commended
Donald McCallum, chair of the ICE South East Awards judging panel, said “This project represented a clear strategic decision to dramatically improve the quality of the road surface, particularly for many rural areas across the County. The optimised approach, the future emphasis on planned maintenance, and the clear benefits to a large community are to be commended.”
Community Benefit Award for Winchester High Street
The Community Benefit Award went to the Winchester High Street repaving scheme, a joint project between Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council. Mildren Construction, who carried out this work, has just been appointed as the contractor for a follow up project to improve Winchester’s Square. Second place in this category was awarded to another Hampshire County Council project, The South Winchester Park and Ride, where the contractor was Dyer & Butler.
Of Winchester High Street, Donald McCallum, chair of the judging panel, said “A large number of people will benefit for many years from this community project. Excellent project management ensured that disruption to businesses was minimised, and that shoppers and visitors were not inconvenienced over the busy Christmas period.”
Cllr George Beckett, Leader or Winchester City Council, said, “We are very proud of the excellent High Street refurbishment and have received praise from residents and visitors alike. We are now looking to expand this project into The Square in Winchester to benefit even further from this well thought out and implemented scheme. I am pleased that these examples of the County and City Councils working together have received recognition in these awards.”
Councillor Mel Kendal, Executive Member for Environment and Transport at Hampshire County Council, said “This is very good news for all who have worked on these schemes and all who are now benefitting from them. Good roads and infrastructure are important to Hampshire’s residents and vital to Hampshire’s future economic stability which is why we take investment in them very seriously indeed.
“I am particularly pleased that, in giving the award to Operation Restore, our strategy of changing the emphasis of our highways maintenance operations from reactive road maintenance to investing in a long term planned approach has been recognised. Operation Resilience is now building on what Operation Restore achieved and I have every confidence that it will be equally successful. Taking the top two places for schemes of most Community Benefit – Winchester High Street and the South Winchester Park & Ride – is very welcome recognition of the importance the County Council attaches to such projects – our roads, pavements and transport facilities have a central place in local communities.”