Mike Meister, Transportation Work Group Manager, Hamilton, New Zealand

Mike has played a significant role in helping the Opus Auckland team deliver a vast number of key technical outputs for the AMETI scheme in his roles as traffic engineer for the entire scheme and design manager for the northern sector.  Whilst working on this demanding project with tight deadlines he also worked on significant projects within the Waikato region.   In this time, Mike’s commitment to the scheme and constant “can do” attitude energised and motivated other team members during extremely stressful times.  This ensured the successful completion of the scheme development work.    The client’s confidence in the Opus team’s (and specifically Mike’s) ability to provide technically sound solutions within a short timeframe has also significantly increased during the latter part of the scheme development stage.  This has resulted in the Client expressing appreciation verbally and in writing to the project director. 

Bob Ellis, Senior Design Draughtsman, Auckland, New Zealand

Bob Ellis has provided an extremely competent technical delivery of roading geometric design for many years.  In particular his modelling of roads, rail, earthworks and pipelines in MX has become more and more capable and central to the success of the Auckland Civil design office.  In addition Bob provides technical support on matters relating to many software platforms, and assistance on hardware issues.  Many others in the Company have benefited from his assistance over the years in maintaining software standards, developing work-arounds where needed, and liaising with his peers around the country. This has been of real benefit to numerous Auckland managers.  Over recent times he has worked on most of the major roading and related projects in the office including AMETI.  He is deeply involved in the DART rail projects.  He has also provided crucial support on two Australian projects, namely Traveston Dam in Qld (with Arup in Brisbane) and more recently Telegra Dam in NSW for our Sydney office, using Quantm software.

John Black, Principal Environmental Engineer, Christchurch, New Zealand

John has recently incorporated CT scanning technology into his specialist pipe condition assessment service. This initiative is based solely on a his idea and we are not aware of it being used elsewhere in NZ or internationally. This CT scanning innovation has enhanced the quality and value of this Opus service by increasing confidence levels in assessing pipe condition and predicting remaining life of underground pipe assets. This is a key tool in the Opus water asset management field as Local Authorities nationally are struggling to know when and how to deal with underground pipe assets.   This service (and the technical expertise which underpins it) is being sought out by Local Authorities nationally. John’s technical skills are assisting them make, and justify, significant capital works investment decisions for an ageing pipe network.  The value of this service is that clients are able to plan their pipe replacement /renewal with more certainty and are able to programme replacement over a longer time period thereby avoiding large one-off costs to ratepayers. The CT scanning technology now provides clients with up to 300 cross sections of pipe condition per pipe length (compared with one cross section with a manual sample). This detail is providing Local Authorities with a greater level of science and robustness in their decision making which is an important area of review by Audit NZ.   John’s technical expertise is nationally recognised. John is one of three specialist invited to give a presentation to NZWWA Water Supply Managers annual conference in Blenheim in March 08.   His technical expertise in pipe condition assessment is also recognised internationally.  John has been commissioned by Jason Consultants (Geneva) to undertake work for the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”) on the “Identification and characterization of the state of condition assessment technology for water transmission and distribution systems”.

Dan Stevens, Work Group Manager-Hydraulic Modelling/Engineering, Christchurch, New Zealand

Dan, through his expertise in hydraulic modelling has helped raise the bar in the level of understanding of portable water network throughout NZ. Dan has worked tirelessly at introducing innovation and best practice in the water asset management field. His influence has been outstanding and particularly:

• Dan’s use of new technology in network planning to help Auckland company Watercare plan and design most cost effective network for the bulk water supply for the next 50  years.
• Dan’s review for Metrowater to highlight deficiencies in levels of service for meeting fire fighting flows in their water network. The study used GIS to highlight graphically where the NZ standards where not being met and what flows were necessary to meet the standard.
• Dan was instrumental in our winning an investigation into the Economic Level of Leakage for Metrowater. This is a significant issue for Metrowater as it quantified the Non Revenue Water and identified measures which could be used to reduce leakage. The project reviewed current international best practice and also used recent software from Australia.  This is also a major area of opportunity for us.
  
  
  
  

Grant Webby, Hydraulic Engineering Technical Specialist, Wellington, New Zealand

Grant's technical influence on the Waters of Leith and Lindsay Creek Project has been outstanding. As the lead Hydraulic Engineer for the project, he developed the design philosophy, and managed and directed the complex hydraulic modelling required, including physical modelling.    For two sections it was necessary to resort to two physical hydraulic models of the river system, one of which was carried out at Central Laboratories and the other at Auckland University. Under Grant’s guidance, this information from the models was incorporated into the design.  This has been a challenging project with many areas of technical difficulty and diversity that has clearly benefited from Grant’s professionalism and specialist capability. He is very highly regarded by the client and his role in this has been pivotal to our success. It is also very pleasing to see that Grant was a lead author in a joint paper with Auckland University and Otago Regional Council that was presented at the prestigious “River Flow 2006” in Portugal.

Peter Cenek, Research Manager, Central Laboratories, Wellington, New Zealand

Peter is a specialist in wind engineering and in the mathematical and simulation modelling of pavements and road surfaces. His wind engineering experience has included work on such notable structures as the Majestic Centre in Wellington, the Coopers and Lybrand Tower in Auckland, and the Empire Tower in Kuala Lumpur. He is co-author of the BRANZ design guide: Designing Multi-storey Buildings for Wind Effects. Peter’s work on road roughness and its interaction with truck suspension systems led to a programme of pavement smoothing by Transit New Zealand to improve the ride characteristics for large vehicles to reduce vehicle operating costs. He is a recognised expert on the influence of tyre forces on road design, dynamic pavement loadings, and tyre/road interaction. Pavement deterioration modelling and vehicle operating cost models have been derived from his research for incorporation into the HDM-4 economic assessment model. Recently his skills were called on to report on the condition of a pavement crash site where there were nine fatalities from one accident. This work involved the comparison of measured data from different instruments, drawing this together into a comprehensive analysis of skid resistance and macro texture. Peter is without peer in New Zealand for his specialist skills in carrying out such advanced pavement condition analysis.

Rob Blakemore, Manager Environmental Training Centre, Wellington, New Zealand

Rob is responsible for the industry training programmes delivered by Opus in water and wastewater. He is also a specialist adviser to public and private sector water suppliers for coordinating on-the-job assessments of operational personnel with the performance requirements of the suppliers to ensure that levels of service are being met. He provides specialist advice in the development of risk management techniques to assist clients in prioritising their strategic objectives for community benefit.  He also coordinates the assessment of water and sanitary services for local authorities for legislative compliance. He reviews asset management plans, establishing asset management data storage systems, condition monitoring and the development of maintenance programmes and the preparation of risk management plans. He has been a member of a number of national working groups, including the NZ Drinking Water Standards Committee and a water industry benchmarking design group, and has led a number of national projects including the publication of a handbook on water treatment residuals, water treatment chemical standards, and training needs assessment. He is a past President of the NZWWA and continues to participate as a member of the expert working group to address revisions of the NZ Drinking Water Standards. Rob is recognised for his technical excellence in water and wastewater and for his contribution to the outstanding growth and market place standing of Opus in the water sector.

John Vessey, Principal, Wellington, New Zealand

John has made an outstanding contribution over many years in establishing Opus as one of New Zealand’s leading consultants in the valuation of infrastructure assets. As a result of John’s efforts we now have a growing valuation business delivering this service to a wide range of clients in New Zealand and Australia, including local authorities, national roading authorities, airport companies, port companies and telecommunications companies. John’s expertise in asset valuation has led to him being called as an expert witness in a number of hearings where different valuation methodologies have been challenged. In all cases the Opus methodology developed by John has been vindicated. John has also taken a leading role in expanding our involvement in valuations into other economic evaluation based asset management services.