Tararua’s largest local roading project has taken out the Supreme Award at the Āpōpō Asset Management Excellence Awards in Christchurch last night. Āpōpō is the professional association for Aotearoa New Zealand's infrastructure asset management community.

A small group of representatives from Tararua attended the awards as the Route 52 Huarahi Tūhono Weber to Wimbledon Route 52 upgrade was a finalist in the Community category. The project won the Community category and was also awarded the overall Supreme Award, Kōmata o Te Rangi.

Tararua Alliance Manager Daniel Erard said, “Everyone’s over the moon. To have this national recognition for a Tararua project is fantastic and reflects the hard work of every single person who worked on Route 52. This $16.6 million upgrade was delivered by locals, for locals. The subcontractor teams from HES Earthmoving and Alabaster Contracting were amazing. Our entry described the skill of our local workforce and the project management by Tararua Alliance. Due to the asset management expertise we have in the Alliance, we were able to do the engineering and design inhouse.

“The team learnt so much on this project that also helped the district after Cyclone Gabrielle. We learned from the local landowners who had generational knowledge about the conditions in Weber and Wimbledon, and how the road was originally built. That knowledge paid off as the project stood up to multiple storms, as well as cyclones Gabrielle, Dovi and Hale.”

The community category was looking for a project that showed excellence in asset management as well as uplifting a community. The Route 52 project created the equivalent of fulltime work for 230 people, with 91% local.

Kōmata o Te Rangi, a taurapa (canoe sternpost), is Āpōpō’s Supreme Award, and a symbol of the elite, a representation of a pinnacle, or the zenith, carved by Bronson Baker - an Auckland born carver of Ngati Tuwharetoa, Nga Puhi and Te Arawa descent. The award will be treasured by the Tararua District until it is passed on to next year’s Supreme winner.

Kōmata o Te Rangi will be received into the Tararua District at the Infrastructure, Climate Change and Emergency Management meeting at Tararua District Council on Wednesday 21 May.