The project to install s new bridge over the South Wales Main Line in the centre of Newport was one three Gwent winners at this years’ ICE Wales Cymru Awards.

Newtown Community Park Improvement at Ebbw Vale won an award for innovation and the Bridge Street Rail Overbridge at Newport was awarded the George Gibby Award for schemes over £3m.

And Nick Iannetta, who is head of product engineering at Mabey Bridge, Lydney, and who lives in Newport, won the Ben Barr Award, one of four awards recognising emerging individual talent.

To create community space at Newtown housing estate a unique innovative solution had to be agreed with Natural Resources Wales and has resulted in a new flat community space where various activities are planned in the future. The judges were particularly impressed with the measures that have been taken by the project team to engage with the local community, to make this sloping brown-field site safe (by containing asbestos waste) while enhancing the local environment by making best use of hand-packed gabion retaining walls, soft landscaping and locally occurring materials.

Network Rail’s new single span steel-concrete composite road bridge across the South Wales Main line near Newport Railway Station was designed and delivered by Arup and ABC Electrification.

The judges were particularly impressed with this composite, through-girder bridge. The project team have delivered a functional and attractive bridge despite the substantial constraints which exist at this confined urban location.

Keith Jones, director ICE Wales Cymru said: “Our awards are an excellent opportunity for our industry to get together and showcase design excellence, engineering skills and emerging talent within our profession. The awards shine a light on what is a great career that is delivering vital projects which all add value to the people of Wales. There was an outstanding number of entries this year, indicating that in our 200th year, the ICE is still a leading institution within construction.”