Central Coast Council has received an Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) Engineering Excellence Award for its innovative online interactive map that displays road and drainage capital works projects.

Council Director Roads, Transport, Drainage and Waste, Boris Bolgoff said the interactive map provides valuable information for our community including project description, location, budget, construction start time and duration.

“We wanted community members to be able to easily find information on road and drainage projects that are of interest to them,” Mr Bolgoff said.

“This year we will invest over $70million across 574 road and drainage projects and community members can access a concise summary of any of these projects by simply clicking on the icons on our interactive map or searching a location.

“It is wonderful to receive acknowledgement through an IPWEA Engineering Excellence Award, especially in a category recognising an initiative that uses a new or improved technique or innovation.”

Council is constantly improving the interactive map and has recently added the capacity to upload photographs and concept designs.

The interactive map is one of the most popular features on Council’s website, receiving approximately 6,000 page views each year.

Community members can explore road and drainage projects across the Central Coast’s 2,200 kilometre network of roads by visiting www.centralcoast.nsw.gov.au/roadanddrainageprojects.

The IPWEA Engineering Excellence Awards for 2018 also acknowledged Council with a highly commended for the upgrade of Pleasant Valley Fire Trail in Fountaindale.

The project transformed a track into a fully functioning fire trail in a particularly rugged, steep and dense bushland area in an extreme bushfire zone.

Council and the NSW Rural Fire Service can now better manage the extreme bush fire risk in this area, allow for hazard reduction burning to take place, and provide safe access for fire fighters should an emergency arise.