Works at Horley Station costing £1.5 million and including the building of three lifts have been shortlisted for the region's highest civil engineering honour.

The Horley Station Access for All project, part of Network Rail's national accessibility programme, has made it onto the shortlist for the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Thames Valley Engineering Excellence Awards 2011.

Fourteen other infrastructure and building projects from across the South East will be vying for the top honour at the annual industry awards ceremony at Dorney Lake, Windsor, on June 17.

They include the £5 million A5130 Milton Keynes Busway transport link, the £3.6 million reconstruction of the Caversham Road Bridge at Reading, and the £30 million Guildford Radisson Hotel complex Basement Works at Guildford.

Previous winners include the M4 Prince of Wales Bridge near Slough, the Bourg Walk footbridge in Aylesbury, and the River Lambourn Restoration in Newbury.

All entries were required to have been substantially completed between January 2010 and April 2011, and judgements will be based on criteria such as creativity and innovation, sustainability and environmental sensitivity, and benefits to the client and wider public.

The Horley Station Access for All Project, submitted by J Murphy and Sons, was completed last August by engineer J Murphy and Sons Limited in partnership with Southern Railway, McGarth Group Limited, Stannah Lifts and Trad Scaffolding.

The project involved the building of three lifts from ticket office to platform level, together with associated power, services upgrade and improvement to finishes, including tactile paving.

A statement from ICE said: “The project demonstrates how station accessibility can be successfully delivered, sympathetic to the existing built and natural environment, within the constraints and without disruption to the operational railway and passenger movements.

“Continual communication with local residents meant there were no complaints throughout the works.”

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

He said: “All of the shortlisted projects highlight the important contribution that civil engineers make to the Thames Valley and I congratulate all involved."

The winners will be announced at ICE's annual Thames Valley branch dinner on June 17 at Dorney Lake in Windsor.

ICE is one of the pre-eminent engineering institutions in the world.

Set up in 1818, it has more than 75,000 members and provides a voice for civil engineering, continuing professional development and promoting best practice throughout the industry.