Month: August 2021

Project Description:

Scott Point Sustainable Sports Park is a 16.4ha area of land in the northwest of Auckland that is about to be transformed from a rural landscape to a public park to meet the needs of a new community.

Development of this park is no ordinary feat. Scott Point is set to become the first fully sustainable park in New Zealand. Auckland Council is embarking on this project as a flagship for the future sustainable provision of parks. It will help steer the future course of design, development, management and governance of parks across Auckland in a way that responds to the urgent needs of our planet for sustainable custodianship.

Auckland Council’s Service Principles have informed the development of the master plan. These include: Resource sustainability; Community equity and belonging; Re-wilding; Team and co-design; and Standards and outcomes.

The park will comprise three main areas: an area for sports and active recreation, an informal recreation area, and an area of ecological restoration and conservation. Each is defined by the geography of the site. Natural landforms are retained and earthworks minimised.

Key Achievements:

Energy reductions – 13% reduction in whole of life carbon footprint including:

• alternative turf requiring less sand, and less turf area to mow and maintain
• topsoil reuse onsite
• reduction in site clearance requirements,
• and optimised lighting control

Water reductions – 36% reduction in operational water footprint from installation of Blue2Green rainwater capture and reuse system (conservatively -20%), use of valve in head irrigation system for target irrigation of smaller areas (-14%), and reduction in earthworks requirements (-2%).

Non-Potable water use – 100% water for construction and operations that does not require potable water such as dust suppression and sports field irrigation can be supplied through rainwater capture (1.46 ML/year) and consented groundwater bore (15.3ML/year).

Ecology – 29% enhancement in ecological value through restoring agricultural land, prioritising use of native vegetation and strategic planting to create re-connected corridors as well as suitable land for endangered flora species.

Community – extensive stakeholder engagement included a co-design process to collaborate with local iwi and integrate Te Aranga Māori Design Principles and Te Waka Oranga Principles into the design.

Innovations – the project was awarded 5 innovation points for exceeding ecology credit benchmarks, achieving Innovation Challenge 6 (Supply Chain Education), and featuring Blue2Greeen technology.

Rating Highlights:

29% Enhancement in ecological value

The SPSSP project increases the site ecological value by 29% through the following design features:

• Re-vegetating the existing contaminated / hard infrastructure nursey area,
• Replace 18,9123 m² of exotic planting with 22,134 m² native vegetation,
• Reducing the area of grassland / non-improved pastures by 7% a total of 4,830 m²

These features have been implemented by developing a Native planting plan eco-sourced from the area, designing different planting zones with complimentary species, supporting population growth of critically endangered plant Epilobium hirtigerum, increasing connectivity and forest spaces, and planning for on-going management of the planting and fauna.

This is a large increase in ecological value and is above and beyond the Level 3 requirement of 20%.  Therefore 1 innovation credit was awarded.

Innovation Challenge – Supply Chain Education

85% of the Project Team undertook Supply Chain Sustainability School eLearning modules. Two key modules (Climate Change Adaptation and Sustainable Construction) were delivered by group learning sessions, and the rest of the training was through self-paced online modules.

NZ First – 3 innovation points | Blue2Green Innovative Technology | 100% Rainwater capture and onsite reuse

Jacobs and Sporteng have designed Field 1 to utilise Blue2Green for stabilisation of the base and irrigation. The specified Blue2Green system provides storage of 1080m3 and will capture rainwater and reuse 100% of its water onsite.

Blue2Green is a system of crates that are made from recycled plastic that stack together. They sit underneath the performance layers of the field and collect rainwater that falls onto the field. The grass root system of the field can then draw the water up to ‘self-irrigate’ through wicking.

This design is innovative and helps solve future water supply problems as the reservoir can hold water for dry seasons and the grass can self-irrigate. This vastly reduces the potable water supply for irrigation at the site.

The cells themselves are also made of 90% recycled plastic and can be recycled at their end of life, meaning the product itself has a low carbon equivalent impact.

The cells also act as a stabilised base which reduces the amount of aggregate required under Feld 1. As Field 1 is the main field with the highest hours of play, it is the highest quality field. This required extra design considerations for the base, which in the Base Case consisted of a 200mm thick aggregate subbase. This has been replaced by Blue2Green in the design.

Blue2Green Schematic from Supplier Brochure

 

Acknowledgments:

New Zealand Firsts

• NZ first IS Design Rating for a sports park.
• NZ first use of Blue2Green water management technology design for a sports park.

Stakeholders:

It is acknowledged that this achievement has been the result of multiple stakeholder input including:

• Leadership by Auckland Council and an aspiration to reach a Leading rating
• Design led by Jacobs with specialist input from Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara and Te Kawerau ā Maki (iwi co-design partners), HEB (Early Contractor Engagement), SportsEng (Sports field including Blue2Green technology), WPS Opus (stakeholder engagement),, Morphum Environmental (Ecology)

The NorthConnex project is a 9-kilometre multi-lane motorway linking the M1 Pacific Motorway at Wahroonga to the Hills M2 Motorway at West Pennant Hills. NorthConnex delivers significant benefits to local communities by easing congestion and removing around 5000 trucks daily from Pennant Hills Road. This helps to improve safety, local air quality and reduce traffic noise. Motorists can now travel from Newcastle to Melbourne without a single set of traffic lights, reducing travel times for motorists and delivering state and national freight efficiencies.

NorthConnex is committed to sustainable and responsible operations and has delivered a range of sustainable outcomes through the IS Rating tool. Key achievements include establishing a robust management and governance system, delivering creative and meaningful community engagement, establishing high standards of environmental protection, and innovative design within the tunnel’s systems and equipment that make it a next generation tunnel. The range of sustainability initiatives will provide benefits for the community and environment now and for future generations.

PROJECT KEY ACHIEVEMENTS:

Spoil was beneficially reused from the NorthConnex tunnel excavation at the Hornsby Quarry, saving 3.7 million kilometres of transport distance, and in turn significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This beneficial reuse of spoil lays the foundations for the Hornsby Quarry Rejuvenation Project, where an abandoned quarry will be turned into new recreational parkland by Hornsby Shire Council.

Through redesign and changes to the construction footprint, the project has successfully saved more than one hectare of threatened vegetation, including 742 individual Epacris (Epacris purpurascens var. purpurascens) on the Hills M2 Motorway.

NorthConnex has used more than 5,500 LED lights in place of traditional high-pressure sodium (HPS) or fluorescent lighting technology to reduce electricity consumption by 18 per cent. This innovation equates to an overall reduction in carbon emissions of approximately 350 tonnes during the first year of operations alone.

STAKEHOLDER KNOWLEDGE SHARE AND LESSON LEARNT

BACKGROUND

The Ballarat Line Upgrade (BLU) is being delivered by Rail Projects Victoria (RPV), on behalf of the Victorian Government. The project is part of the $1.75 billion Regional Rail Revival with works extending across approximately 100km of rail line. The project is ISCA rated using the Version 1.2 rating tool.

The Ballarat Line Upgrade (BLU) decided to trial the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Version 2.0 Stakeholder credits (Sta-1 and Sta-2) whilst delivering the IS Design and As Built rating. The trial is classified as an innovation challenge as per the ISCA Innovation Challenge Appendix (Rev 4.4). The BLU Project considered the Ballarat Rail corridor as an ideal stakeholder environment to trial the stakeholder innovation challenge. The corridor has a stakeholder profile that ranges from culturally heritage and historic townships, farming communities, environmental landcare groups and forward-thinking councils to name a few.

ADVICE FOR SUCCESS

The following advice is primarily focussed on the Stakeholder Version 2.0 design rating.

Advice in general – The design rating is key for setting up the project for a successful stakeholder engagement pathway. The stakeholder engagement strategy development is vital in underpinning that success. The project used a register to track how each credit and must statement could be met. This allowed for actions, responsibility and timing.

Lesson learnt – Most Infrastructure construction projects use management plans to meet stakeholder engagement requirements. After consultation with ISCA’s case managers, the BLU Project found that implementation of a Community and Stakeholder Engagement Management Plan (CSEMP) was enough to be used as a strategy. The Plan still addressed the requirements of the credit, however it was used as a joint strategy and management plan in one.

Sta-1, DL1.1 – There are many ‘musts’ that must be populated throughout the stakeholder engagement strategy.

Advice – Using the must statements as headings within the stakeholder engagement strategy or titles of tracking registers is an efficient and effective way to show the must statements are being met. For example, having a section title of: ‘Recording mechanisms’ within the strategy that refers to registers or recording programs is an easy way to prove compliance with that must statement. The recording mechanism must capture engagement activities, meetings with stakeholders and feedback from stakeholders. This also meets another must statement within Sta-2, DL2.3. This must statement mandates that for the lessons learnt process, records of engagement activities must be collated. By having sound recording mechanisms of all engagement activities undertaken, this task has already been done for the lessons learnt exercise.

Lesson Learnt – The project included better links to recording mechanisms within a future Version of the CSEMP. As stated above, establish this early in stakeholder strategy/plans from the planning phase.

Sta-1, DL1.1 – Negotiables and non-negotiables

Advice – Listing negotiables and non-negotiables (with justifications) in the stakeholder engagement strategy is paramount. Often there is a process on how negotiables and non-negotiables are determined, however the strategy should provide justification.

Lesson learnt – The project listed our negotiables and non-negotiables in sub-engagement plans, but not within the main body of the stakeholder engagement strategy. This was amended within future revisions of the strategy.

Sta-1, DL1.3 – Strategy is informed by the local context and a social risk assessment

Advice – Incorporating the social risk assessment into the environment and sustainability programmed risk assessments is an efficient way to capture social risk assessments, as these often cross-pollinate with environmental or sustainability control measures.

Sta 1, DL1.3, DL2.1 and Sta-2, DL1.3 – Strategy is informed by the local context and a social risk assessment; Strategy includes targeted activities for different stakeholders and; Priority negotiables are identified by stakeholders.

Advice – The project used early stakeholder engagement summaries to understand the local context and stakeholder characteristics (Sta-1, DL1.3). This information gave us the knowledge to create specific sub-engagement plans (which were referenced in the stakeholder engagement strategy) to engage specific stakeholder groups (a requirement of Sta-1, DL2.1). The purpose of the plan was to detail the program of communications and engagement that would be undertaken to inform stakeholders about: final design; opportunities for comment; how their feedback has been used and; further consultation opportunities. The sub-engagement plans can be further utilised for Sta-2, DL1.3 whereby negotiable issues can be reviewed by stakeholders to understand if priorities have changed. The sub-engagement plans establish the stakeholder engagement program to ensure this review happens throughout design.

Sta-2, DL2.2 – Implementation progress is reviewed and used to update the strategy

Advice – Set up clear measurable objectives in the CSEMP and report on them via monthly reporting to the senior leadership team and client.

Sta-1, ABL2.1 – Strategy is integrated through the project life cycle.

Advice – The project are using the Operations and Maintenance Manuals to provide stakeholder engagement knowledge, activities and historical items through to the operator.

To learn more, visit the Regional Rail Revival Ballarat website.