SCIRT’s Awards

SCIRT was recognised nationally and internationally with awards for its achievements in several areas from civil engineering and construction to IT, planning and the environment, including winning the prestigious Brunel Medal in 2013.

The Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Rebuild Team (SCIRT) gathered an impressive array of awards over its brief five and a half year life.

International accolade

Tasked with rebuilding Christchurch’s publicly-owned roads and underground water and wastewater services, SCIRT was recognised internationally and nationally for its achievements and innovations in many disciplines from construction, civil engineering, public relations to IT, planning and the environment.

The sheer scale of the civil engineering undertaking was thrown into the international spotlight when SCIRT was awarded the prestigious Brunel Medal by the United Kingdom Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in October 2013 in recognition of excellence in civil engineering.

“This project highlights the scale of the task and the number of people involved, showing outstanding teamwork and collaboration,” ICE said in awarding the coveted medal.

The competition is named after one of the engineering world’s most ingenious nineteenth century engineers, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, celebrated for his ground-breaking designs of railways, bridges, tunnels and steamships.

“This was a natural disaster of great magnitude and shows the dedication to a project of immense scale. It has placed civil engineering in the forefront of people’s minds,” ICE said.

SCIRT’s Executive General Manager Duncan Gibb went on to be appointed a Fellow of the organisation and was asked to present the prestigious Brunel International Lecture through 2014 and 2015.

Canterbury champ

On the home front, in 2013 the Canterbury business community bestowed on SCIRT its highest praise, awarding it not only the Champion Canterbury Infrastructure Award but also the Champion Canterbury Supreme Award, medium to large enterprise category, for its contribution to the Canterbury Rebuild.

Again in 2016 the Canterbury business community acknowledged SCIRT’s rebuild achievements awarding it a second time with the Champion Canterbury Infrastructure/Trades Award, medium to large enterprise category.

Resources innovation

SCIRT excelled in other disciplines. In 2012 SCIRT and engineering consultancy Beca won the Resource Management Law Association’s Project Award for SCIRT’s multi-criteria assessment tool which helped teams select the rebuild options for Christchurch’s earthquake-damaged infrastructure.

The RMLA judging committee called the tool “an innovative, pragmatic and practical solution, developed under extreme time and emotional pressure.”

Heritage honour

SCIRT construction teams rose to the challenges of preserving and strengthening Christchurch’s precious heritage structures and in 2016 were recognised at the Canterbury Heritage Awards.

SCIRT was equal winner of the Public Realm Saved and Restored category, for the restoration and strengthening of the iconic war memorial, the Memorial Arch, standing tall and proud on the Bridge of Remembrance, highly commended for its repair of the historic Armagh Street Bridge in the central city in the Public Realm Saved and Restored category, and highly commended in the Seismic category for its work on the Memorial Arch.

SCIRT received a swag of other awards including from the New Zealand Planning Institute, the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors, the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand, Ministry for the Environment, National Association of Women in Construction, and the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA).

Please refer to the attachment for the record of awards won by SCIRT.

Glossary terms:

• ICE – Institution of Civil Engineers