RPS Newcastle NSW has recently won the Infrastructure Category Award at the NSW Awards for Excellence in Surveying and Spatial Information. The ceremony was held in Sydney on September 28th.

The awards were hosted by the Institute of Surveyors, New South Wales (ISNSW) and the Association of Consulting Surveyors NSW (ACS). The specific category awards were first introduced in 1998 to acknowledge excellence in surveying and spatial science in NSW, and encourage surveyors to strive to attain the highest quality of work possible. Entries are judged by a panel from ISNSW and ACS. Businesses winning awards will also be entered into the national Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards (APSEA).

Main award categories are People and Community, Infrastructure and Construction, Environmental Planning, Extra Dimension, Land Development, Spatial Information, and Cadastral Surveying, but individual awards have been introduced more recently to attract more young people to the profession, these being the TAFE Surveying Student of the Year, University Student Project of the Year, Professional Surveyor of the Year, Young Surveyor of the Year and Journalist of the Year Awards.

The Newcastle NSW office has previously won the overall Sir Thomas Mitchell Excellence in Surveying Award for the most outstanding project nominated for the awards (2003), for the Ecological Constraints Master Plan (ECMP) for the Hunter Economic Zone (HEZ), being the largest planned industrial estate in NSW.

The recent (2007) award was won for works undertaken on behalf of Hunter Energy for the Seahampton to Rutherford Hunter Gas Pipeline, being a 34.5km gas pipeline proposed to service existing and planned industrial areas and aluminium smelters. RPS undertook route selection, detailed alignment investigations, statutory planning applications, environmental management planning, and detailed long section / cross section surveys and easement surveys for the project.

A Director of RPS Newcastle NSW, said "The challenges set by the client's needs, and the at times rugged terrain through ecologically sensitive areas, demanded an integrated approach involving input from all specialist aspects of the business, including ecologists, archaeologists, planners, surveyors and GIS mapping. The award is recognition of the high standard collectively set by all involved on this project".

For more information please contact:
RPS Newcastle NSW - Planning & Development (HSO)
T: +61 (0) 2 4961 6500