The 2020 PWI Awards Night was held on Friday 12 February 2021 at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney. The sold out event was a hugely successful, with over 240 members and their guests attending for a night of award presentations, a three course dinner and drinks, and a long overdue chance to network with their industry colleagues, friends, and leaders.
A big thank you to those that nominated for the awards, and to the judges on the various award panels who volunteered their time to assess the entries. Congratulations to the following winners of the 2020 PWI Awards:
Welders Award – William Stapely, MP Rail (a standout 494 welds for the year, with zero ultrasonic or alignment defects)
Steve Maxwell (minor) – ESR Viaduct, FFU Half Sleepers, Laing O’Rourke (proudly represented by Martin O’Brien)
Steve Maxwell (major) – Sydenham Station and Junction Upgrade, John Holland and Laing O’Rourke (proudly represented by Jason Ghattas and Nicola Abrahams).
Alan Barham – Muswellbrook Provisioning Centre Team, ARTC (proudly represented by David Green and his team)
Congratulations also to the Highly Commended winners in Alan Barham Maintenance Award – always a hotly contested and closely scored award:
Western Territory Civil Team (Sydney Trains)
West Wyalong Maintenance Team (John Holland CRN)
City South Civil Team (Sydney Trains)
And last, but certainly not least, congratulations again on the Ken Erickson Innovation Award winner for 2020 – this award was presented at the 2020 Annual Convention held in November last year:
ETW-V System – John Holland CRN with 4-Tel.
Special thanks to our VIP’s for their attendance and support of the awards night – Howard Collins, Caroline Wilkie, Suzanne Holden, Tim Parker, Rob Mason, Gerard Butler, Mario Dimovski, Jacqueline Linke.
Thanks to all our sponsors, attendees, and to all the PWI Committee members who work tirelessly to put these events on for their members.
PWI NSW has five annual awards each year for welding, track maintenance, young achievers, innovation and platelaying (track/turnout installation). Presentation and recognition of permanent way achievement in the past 12 months not only acknowledges efforts, it is also an opportunity to advertise your achievements amongst industry peers and prospective clients. Do you need any more reason to nominate for the PWI annual awards……
PWI NSW Awards Nominations
To nominate you must be a financial PWI NSW member or have at least one financial PWI NSW member in your team.
These awards are presented during the PWI Annual Convention in October. All Award submissions, except the Young Achiever Award, close at the end August each year with projects completed in the previous 12 months eligible for entry.
Submission templates, criteria and other relevant information is listed below for each Award Category. Register your nomination by calling the Award Contacts below.
Registration and payment to the PWI NSW Annual Convention will be required as a PWI NSW member if you are nominated for an award.
The PWI Young Achiever Award is a prize of up to $10,000 for the winner to go towards the cost of attending a relevant international railway conference. To be eligible for this award, an entrant must be 35 or younger at the 1 January of the year of entry. The aim is to encourage younger members into our industry and promote knowledge sharing. We have now broadened the judging criteria to make it more multi-disciplinary so that it includes for all members who are involved in the numerous rail infrastructure projects that are being delivered at the moment. Specific multi-disciplinary examples that would be eligible could include:
Fit out works within the Northwest Rail Line Tunnels and viaducts including not just the slab track but other systems
Systems integration experience on projects such as the Sydney Light Rail; and
General rail infrastructure upgrade works or program of works including stations, power systems or signalling systems to increase capacity and the user experience.
Details of the 2020 award have now been announced by the ARA with nominations closing on COB Friday 26th June 2020.
The prize winners will be announced at the Australasian Rail Industry Awards Dinner on 19 November 2020 at the Crown Entertainment Complex in Melbourne and it will give the winner an opportunity to be recognised by the whole of the Australian Railway family.
The winner will be invited to attend the Australasian Rail Industry Awards Dinner 2020, as a guest of the PWI and the Awards Committee. Partners may also attend at their own cost.
For further information on entries please contact Julian Sharp on 0437 638 398 or julian.sharp@cpbcon.com.au
Please refer to the ARA website for details on the Gala dinner Link to ARA Website
Please refer to the links below for information on how to enter for the PWI Young Achiever Award.
the maintenance Team Award is named in the honour of Alan Barham. Alan held several positions over the years after he joined as a graduate engineer with the NSW Government Railways in the Structures Design section of Transport House in about 1969 until 1996.
Alan Barham was an advocate of the importance of local housekeeping/ routine maintenance from fettling gangs to safety, reliability and the condition of the railway. This award was established to promote pride in track maintenance and associated structures.
It is for the above reasons that this award has been named in Alan’s honour whom sadly succumbed to cancer in early 1997.
For further information on entries please contact Scott Chapman on 0427 298 577.
Ken Erickson was elected as a Fellow of the New South Wales Permanent Way Institution on 30 November 1981. He was a member of the Committee from 1981 until his untimely death on 25 November 1988. Ken was always trying to provide new ideas or concepts to the PWI, hence it is fitting that the Innovation Award (previously Achievement Award) is named in his honour. This Annual Award is made to recognise an initiative or significant advance, which has been towards improvement in any part of the Rail Industry during the last year.
For further information on entries please contact Gareth Beynon on 0429 041 991.
Steve Maxwell was a Member of the PWI Committee for many years, and his hard work and dedication enabled the PWI to continue during some difficult times. Steve was an informed Judge of the Platelaying Award, and also an entertaining speaker and presenter. Steve’s death in 1997 was a great loss to the PWI and took from the industry a great engineer, friend and personable and supportive leader. The Committee deemed it appropriate to name the prestigious Platelaying Award after Steve. The award is to recognise excellence in rail trackwork construction and renewal works, or in short “trackwork that is well done”.
In 2015 the judging criteria for the Award was revised to include a “level of client satisfaction” assessment that resulted in client project ratings being incorporated into the judging process.
For further information on entries please contact Stephen Fleck on 0407 103 228.
PWI NSW introduced this Award in 2002 to recognise the efforts of field workers in the area of rail welding.This award attracts entries from all over the State, which is testimony to the wide geographic base of PWI members.
For further information on entries please contact Mark White on 0407 940 577.
