Rā Hihi builders receive industry accolade

The Jap Busway Alliance says it’s been recognised on the 2025 Civil Contractors New Zealand (CCNZ) prize-giving, profitable the excellence in onsite/administration innovation Award “for the excellent work on Rā Hihi – flyover”.

It says the award is “acknowledgment of the alliance’s dedication and progressive method”.

“It displays the collaboration between Auckland Transport (AT), Fletcher Building, ACCIONA, AECOM and Jacobs in partnership with mana whenua, and highlights the distinctive teamwork that continues to drive the Jap Busway venture ahead.

“Congratulations to everybody concerned in delivering world-class infrastructure and setting new requirements in venture excellence and partnership,” says the Jap Busway Alliance.

“The Jap Busway Alliance (EBA) carried out a mix of superior short-term works, bespoke formwork design, real-time concrete monitoring, and a collaborative administration method.

“This built-in innovation was authentic in merging cutting-edge expertise with crew-driven ingenuity to beat development challenges.

“This innovation resulted within the supply of [the $152 million] Rā Hihi 5 months forward of schedule, which saved AT $2 million.”

The EBA says the venture’s distinctive options, wherein a number of distinctive practices have been mixed, included:

Designing and constructing customized heavy-duty metal formwork for Rā Hihi’s 16 flared architectural piers, together with a uniquely engineered detachable wedge panel – a artistic resolution that enabled the alliance to strip the shape from the hardened concrete simply, one thing not completed in earlier initiatives.
Creating a low-heat low carbon concrete combine with EBA’s provider, changing as much as 70 per cent of cement with slag/fly ash.
Deploying wi-fi concrete sensors to observe temperature and energy acquire in actual time. This was the primary time EBA had used an clever sensor system to information formwork elimination, and it proved invaluable.
Devising an progressive technique to deal with short-term works. As an alternative of painstakingly dismantling and rebuilding help towers for every span, EBA used two cranes to elevate and relocate total metal falsework towers in giant sections. Diaphragm cycles have been programmed to take three and a half weeks. They have been undertaken in two weeks.

“This daring method challenged the established order of bridge development strategies,” says the EBA.

“Rā Hihi was constructed on three-metre diameter mono piles with plunged cages – delivered to a excessive customary, saving 4 months on conventional smaller pile/pile cap options.”