48-day SH6 Remediation Project is a finalist project in the Innovation category of the 2023 Asset Management Excellence Awards.

Waka Kotahi and Fulton Hogan demonstrated how lateral thinking and impeccable planning can save large amounts of time, public inconvenience, economic and environmental cost by building back SH6 between Hira and Havelock in just 48 days. In the process the team considerably expanded the initial project of work, bringing major gains in resilience and preparedness for any future such weather event.

In August 2022 an ‘atmospheric river’ brought a metre of rain in just four days to the top of the South Island. After shoring up the SH6 and SH63 links between Marlborough and Nelson, Waka Kotahi entrusted Fulton Hogan to rebuild washed out sections of SH6 between Hira and Havelock in an ultra-intense 48-day road closure programme, something that would normally take around 18 months under a traditional tender-design-build process. In the process, they mitigated much of the social, economic and environmental pressure of an extended rebuild. By designing several ‘on ramps’ into the project, Fulton Hogan, WSP and its subcontractors were able to considerably increase the scale – and hence benefit of the project – with two major additions (addressing a 20,000m3 slip above the road and making a permanent road realignment and river defence at Red River), yet ensured the project was completed on schedule on Sunday 18 December.