News

Thanks to our many friends, clients and colleagues who have sent us messages of support over the last week, since Saturday morning's big (7.1) earthquake in Canterbury. All ViaStrada staff are well, but some have sustained (mostly minor) damage to house contents, houses or gardens.

Standards New Zealand has completed a review of the New Zealand Standard for Land development and subdivision engineering, NZS 4404:2004. The Standard covers earthworks, roads, drainage, water supply, services, and landscaping, and is a guide to good practice. It sets out design objectives to be achieved and specifications that can be used as a means to comply with those objectives.

ViaStrada has begun a programme of professional development with Christchurch City Council's graduate civil engineers. Under the programme, the engineers work for six weeks with ViaStrada, as part of their general experience preparing for IPENZ certification as chartered professional engineers. Within the council, they will work in a variety of fields including traffic engineering, transportation planning, civil engineering, roading, drainage and structural design. ViaStrada is the first consultancy to be used by CCC in this fashion.

Winners of the 2010 Golden Foot awards were announced at an awards ceremony in Wellington on 1 August 2010. Whakatane District Council was awarded the ViaStrada Best Practice Walking Facility award for its Warren Cole Walk and Cycleway. ViaStrada is proud to be the sponsor of this award (since 2009), recognising the creation of best practice walking facilities in New Zealand. Other Golden Foot award winners are identified on the Living Streets Aotearoa website.