MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release, 20 February 2008

Smooth transition for new detailed design phase

A change of guard for the Gisborne Wastewater Project will take place at the end of this month as the pre-design phase draws to a close.

CH2M Beca design team leader Rachael Shaw will temporarily transfer to the role of Gisborne District Council project manager, replacing Heather Smith who is returning to Britain for family reasons. The switch will give the council breathing space to find a long term project manager to take the scheme through to completion in 2012.

Roddy Copeland will lead the Beca team through to the end of the detailed design phase in late December. The Auckland-based wastewater engineer has worked as project manager and lead engineer on major water, stormwater and wastewater projects. He will join Beca’s core team of project director Garry Macdonald and engineers Chris French, Victoria di Ciano, Graeme Insull, Teow Boo Koh, Nick Berry and Maria Utting.

Council engineering and works manager Peter Higgs expects a seamless transition as the combined Beca-council team complete the pre-design phase at the end of March.

“We expect the project to maintain its current momentum and stay on target. Rachael and Heather have been working closely together. Rachael’s detailed knowledge of the project’s technical aspects and Gisborne background enable her to slip easily into Heather’s role to provide continuity until other arrangements are made,” he says.

Heather Smith has led the wastewater project since its inception last year and contributed to other major projects during her 11 months with council. Her background work on the solid waste issue led to council’s decision not to go ahead with the proposed Mander Road landfill.

She is confident that, based on achievements to date, Gisborne will have a wastewater system of which to be proud.

“I am pleased to have been part of shaping the crucial early design work of this exciting project. I joined council when the treatment plant scheme was just a few drawings and a complex set of consent conditions. The team I have led has turned these into a sound, cost-effective yet environmentally sustainable concept. We have looked at all physical aspects – the industrial separation, inflow and infiltration, transfer pipelines, Aerodrome Road site layout and the potential transformation or refurbishment of the existing Stanley Road milliscreening site.

“The project is progressing well. The Beca team has worked well with council staff to complete a huge range of studies and design work in an extremely short time.

“I will be proudly watching from afar for progress updates and hope one day to return to see the biological trickling filter treatment plant in operation, the remaining infrastructure upgraded and most of all to see the quality of the waters off Gisborne much-improved.”

ENDS

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