COHUNA has delivered a big national award for local enterprise AWMA Water Control Solutions – one of its best kept secrets.
The business has been named winner of the Fabricator Project of the Year 2022 Process Industries Award by the Australian Stainless Steel Development Association (ASSDA).
For six years AWMA has partnered with New Zealand’s Rangitata Diversion Race Management (RDRML) to deliver one of the world’s largest fish-friendly water extraction facilities.
Every day, the Rangitata Diversion Race (RDR) takes water from the New Zealand South Island’s Rangitata River.
The race is a 67km channel that diverts water for irrigation, stock water and hydro power generation.
But it quickly became apparent to RDRML that this process had to be upgraded so it no longer came at a cost to the environment, including native fish populations.
AWMA was awarded the contract to design, construct and supply an environmentally sustainable diversion screen solution, that will deliver the required flows, while excluding sporting fish (primarily salmon and trout) and a variety of native fish, so they can return, unharmed, back into the river system.
The environmentally sustainable solution AWMA designed for the RDR project features a stainless-steel screening structure the company says is self-cleaning, fish-friendly, has a low whole of life cost, is compliant with fish screening guidelines, meets client requirements and sets a new standard for intake screen technology.
AWMA managing director Brett Kelly said his company was “committed more than 20 years developing a very solid and skilled workplace in Cohuna, so it’s very empowering for the team to receive national recognition”.
“It’s also a great opportunity to highlight the calibre of regional Australian manufacturing for an international project,” he said.
This project is one of many multistage, multimillion-dollar international projects AWMA has secured.
Mr Kelly said things were going so well the company was on the recruitment path looking for people who were “interested in contributing to a company that is making positive changes to the environment and is recognised for its high level of innovation and quality across the Australian water and manufacturing industries”.
RDRML chief executive Tony McCormick said AWMA had “played a key role in the success of our strategically important fish screen project – the largest of its type anywhere”.
He said AWMA “came on board very early in our project and provided valuable input to the design development with timely technical and commercial information”.
“Their delivery has been outstanding – the fabrication and construction quality of the very large stainless components has been truly impressive.”
