A RACE against time to repair a cracked lock gate and a major new university scheme have been honoured in an engineering awards scheme.

Work to improve Sandford Lock and Sandford Access Bridge on the River Thames and a £29.5m project at Oxford University were described as “the best of the best” engineering projects in 2010-11.

The schemes are up against 12 others for the Institute of Civil Engineering’s Thames Valley Engineering Excellent Award.

Sandford Lock, Sandford-upon-Thames, is up for the award, after a 72-hour emergency repair operation last May, ordered after divers discovered the damage.

A temporary dam was put in place, a crane was floated across the river and thousands of fish were removed before the lock was drained and work began.

Esther Farnsworth, manager at the nearby King’s Arms pub, said: “I was very impressed. They told us a date they were going to finish and I didn’t believe it, but they finished exactly on time.”

A new gate was finally installed in a £250,000 project last month.

The nearby Sandford Access Bridge is also up for the award, following work last June to increase its weight capacity from three tonnes to 18 tonnes.

A £29.5m teaching and research facility at Oxford University’s department of earth sciences is also on the awards shortlist. The modern buildings, a five-storey office and teaching block and a four-storey laboratory, houses 400 students and staff at South Parks Road.

The building, completed last October, has 61 per cent of its heat provided by ground source heating, and recycled rain water is used to flush toilets.

John Laverty, the institute’s South East director, said: “We received a record number of entries this year and have managed to select the top 15 schemes, which we feel represent the best of the best.”

l The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Dorney Lake, near Windsor, on June 17.