COFFEY Geotechnics and Environments was the only Western Australian winner at the Association of Consulting Engineers Australia awards night held in Perth on November 28. The company was recognised with a gold award for the investigation to find the best site on the Maret Islands, off the Kimberley coast, to bring ashore gas via a pipeline to a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. Project proponent Inpex Browse has since decided to build its LNG plant near Darwin. Fifty bore holes were drilled under trying circumstances with a towed rig for the near-shore boreholes, while a helicopter was used to transport a rig for the onshore work. “The reported footprint impact was 0.1 per cent of the land surface, compared with about 10 per cent for a conventional truck drilling approach using roads,” ACEA chief executive Megan Motto said. “As well, the OHS record was excellent for this most challenging investigation.” The overall winner in the ACEA awards was consulting engineering firm Arup, which received the project of the year accolade for the Beijing National Aquatics Centre – better known during the 2008 Olympics as the Water Cube. Arup provided all engineering disciplines for the concept design along with internal design management for the $US100 million construction project.