The 28th annual CCNZ Hawke's Bay East Coast Branch Awards were held on Friday 25 November at Toitoi events centre in Hastings. With over 170 members, associates and sponsors attending, it was a great night for all who attended.

The night started off recognising the top three finalists for the regional excavator competition with 'dirt whisperer' and three-time champion Dan Mepham of Gair Contracting taking out the top prize once more. Dan will be heading to Feilding to represent the region in the CCNZ CablePrice National Excavator Operator Competition for the third time. 

Three new award categories were introduced for members to enter their people and companies into this year, with Milwaukee sponsoring the 'Outstanding Individual of the Year' award, which went to to Piri Jessup from Topline Contracting, and the new 'Woman in Contracting' award going to Ilona Turnbull from Topline Contracting, despite strong competition from Kirsten Bell and Kylee Martin of Fulton Hogan.

The last new award - the 'Training Company of the Year' award - went to Topline Contracting for its Topline Academy initiative and internal training programmes. Topline Contracting have excelled at training and retaining staff this year and the Branch is very proud to have them as members, and is excited to be a part of what they are doing for the industry. The inaugural Training Company of the Year Award was sponsored by Connexis and Humes, with Fulton Hogan featuring as this year's runner-up.

This year’s Hunter Donghi Memorial Trainee of the Year award winner was Chloe Edwards from Fulton Hogan - a very talented and driven young woman with a bright future ahead of her. This year's award was sponsored by Fulton Hogan, in memory of last year's winner Hunter Donghi, who passed away after a short but brave battle with liver cancer earlier this year. Stanley King of Topline Contracting was this year's runner-up.

The project awards saw 20 entries across the five project categories - a mammoth task for judges Gordon Tripp and Dave Jaques to assess. Dave and Trippy commented they know the industry is in good hands after seeing the quality of work in the region. They travelled the Hawke's Bay East Coast region to inspect and critique the amazing work by CCNZ members, who did not make their job easy due to the outstanding quality of the projects.

See the event photos (password for download is Contractor22)>>

And the winners were

Category one – Projects under $200K - sponsored by Humes

Quality Roading and Services for Te Reinga Bridge project

Category two – Project value $200k - $1m - Sponsored by Geosynthetic Partners International

Currie Construction for Son of Houpoto

Category three – Project value $1m - $3m - sponsored by Geosynthetic Partners International

Downer NZ – Tauroa Rd Boardwalk

Category four – Project value $3m plus - sponsored by Geosynthetic Partners International

Russell Roads for Flaxmill Inundation Remediation

Category five - Excellence in the maintenance and management of assets, including routine maintenance projects - sponsored by Geosynthetic Partners International

Fulton Hogan HB for HDC Rural pavement and corridor maintenance

Hunter Donghi Memorial Trainee of the Year Award - sponsored by  Fulton Hogan

Chloe Edwards - Fulton Hogan

Outstanding Individual - sponsored by Milwaukee

Piri Jessup - Topline Contracting

Training Company of the Year - sponsored by Connexis and Humes

Topline Contracting

Woman in Contracting - sponsored by Milwaukee

Ilona Turnbull - Topline Contracting

The branch congratulates all the winners and thanks this year's sponsors for the evening and everyone who came along to make this a great night 

Event sponsors

Connexis - Te Pukenga
Downer
Fulton Hogan
Gair Contracting
GPIL
HB Infrastructure and Civil
Higgins
Hirepool
Humes
Milwaukee
QRS
Ritchie Civil
Russell Roads
Topline Contracting