BNE Projects Win at Engineering Excellence Awards

In a joint submission with its contractor BMD, Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) has won the Excellence Award in the Environment category at the annual Queensland Engineering Excellence awards for the Phase 1 Civil Works of the $1.3b New Parallel Runway (NPR) project.

BAC was also Highly Commended for its work on its Runway Overlay project in the Project Management Category.

The NPR project, which is currently the largest aviation project in Australia, included clearing 360 hectares of the greenfield site, construction access, major drainage works, treatment of hundreds of cubic metres of acidic soils, installation of a lime barrier trench and fauna relocations among many other environmental initiatives.

BAC’s CEO and Managing Director Julieanne Alroe said the prestigious awards recognise the contribution engineers make to the community through their innovations, teamwork, ingenuity and creativity.

“This is an outstanding achievement for our team and due recognition for the work BAC, our contractors BMD and our consultants applied to this project.

“We’re thrilled to have won the Environment Category Award as it reinforces our focus that delivering the NPR project is not just about the finished engineering project but equally important for the environmental and community outcomes,” Ms Alroe said.

BAC has a dedicated 285 hectare biodiversity zone which is set aside specifically for the preservation of flora and fauna and as part of the project, BAC created a new 11 hectare habitat for the endangered ground dwelling Lewin’s Rail bird and was responsible for the re-establishment of mangrove growth to include new drains and waterways on the site.

The Highly Commended Overlay Project was recognised for the decision, organisation and execution of placing more than 18,000 tonnes of asphalt on BNE’s existing main runway. This complex project needed to be completed within five hour operational windows between midnight and 5am; which was the tightest time restriction of any runway overlay ever undertaken in Australia.

The Overlay Project was completed ahead of time and with no impact to aircraft operations.Video footage of BNE’s NPR and Runway Overlay projects can be seen here.