11 November 2025:
Our Civil team were honoured to receive the supreme accolade at the CCNZ Hawke’s Bay and East Coast Construction Awards on Friday night (7 November). In addition to winning the $10M plus category, their Kereru Gorge no.3 project (pictured below) won the night’s Supreme Award.
Hawke’s Bay Contracting Operations Manager, Doug Cushing (pictured below), was also in the limelight, being awarded Outstanding Individual of the Year for his leadership in health and safety and in managing roading, water and infrastructure projects across Hawkes Bay.
The Kereru Gorge Culvert team worked 24/7 across four shifts to complete the project on behalf of Hastings District Council. In the foothills 40km west of Hastings, it replaced the culvert swept away in Cyclone Gabrielle, leaving a 40m wide by 18m deep chasm.
The construction team built concurrently with the design delivery for much of the accelerated project.
“As an around-the-clock operation with things developing so fast, shift management, adequate engineering support and fatigue management were key,” says Civil Contracts Manager, Joel Hodgson.
Fulton Hogan precast played a key role in the design, including upstream and downstream retaining walls that follow the gorge’s contours. Using inhouse software and survey data from the gorge, they custom-developed 976 recon blocks to form the lower 10m of the culvert, supporting a 6m high, 69 panel L-Wall.
Shown celebrating the Kereru Gorge culvert success is Rob Deighton, Liam Blackley, Grace Waller, Daniel Kaijser. Front row: JP Lombaard, Eben van Niekerk, Michael Stiebel, Joel Hodgson, Scott Hill and Wouter de Wet.
