The annual awards, hosted by the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia, showcase large scale engineering projects with nominations from Councils across the state.

Yass Valley Council Director of Operations Simon Cassidy said the award is a fantastic achievement for Council and is testament to the hard work of Council staff and Councillors. 

“The Yass Dam Upgrade is the biggest engineering project that this Council has ever undertaken. We have now tripled the water capacity for our community and provided a reliable water supply for future growth, thanks to Council’s vision and commitment to the project,” Mr Cassidy said.

He made a presentation of the project at the awards night describing the stages and modelling that the Council did in the design, research and construction of the dam. 

"We were up against projects from big city Councils so it was a real honour and a fantastic achievement for the Yass Valley," Mr Cassidy said. 

The Yass Dam can now store 2465 megalitres of water after a successful two year and $22.6 million engineering project which was completed in October last year to raise the dam wall by three metres, the project fell below the budgeted $23 million. 

The official opening on  October 12 2013, hosted by Mayor Rowena Abbey and former Mayor Nic Carmody, saw a culmination of over eight years of planning, studies, community consultation and construction works.

Nic Carmody told the Tribune that awards like this show that the Yass Valley Council are leaders in their field and it is a wonderful achievement for both the Council and community.

“The bulk of the credit needs to go to the staff, in particular Simon Cassidy, David Rowe and Siva Sivakumar. It goes to show what hard work, persistence and foresight can do."

Mr Carmody expressed regret that the project was not fully completed, however is confident future endeavours by Council and residents could improve the water quality. 

"Ratepayers would be aware the taste of the water isn't wonderful and hopefully that can be rectified in coming years with the assistance of State Government. To me it appears there will be a chance for funding with a new local member in March 2015."

Yass Valley Council Mayor Rowena Abbey said the upgraded Yass Dam is a very welcome asset to the region.

“The Yass Dam upgrade project is the single largest project ever undertaken by Yass Valley Council and ultimately necessary to provide the community with a secure water supply.

“Our region lived through significant drought between 2002 and 2008 with limited water storage in our dam. We also had significant growth in this period with a 20 per cent population increase between 1999 and 2009 in Yass alone. 

“These two factors put a severe strain on Council water supply for our existing population and hampered further economic growth of our area.

“We needed to come up with a solution to make our area drought proof – and fairly quickly.

“By investing in and upgrading our dam, one of our region’s biggest assets, our water storage has tripled and we have a secure water supply for our community now and in the future,” Mayor Abbey said. 

The Yass Dam can now service a population of 15,500 people and currently supplies Binalong, Bowning and Yass with the combined average consumption of 750 megalitres of water per year. 

Mr Cassidy made a second presentation of the project at Wednesday nights council meetings and acting Mayor Michael McManus congratulated the team on their success on behalf of the community.

"It was really a joint effort and the success can be attributed to the hard work of the staff at council," Cr McManus said.