The CCF WA 2021 Earth Awards for Excellence in Civil Construction were presented to companies Enviro Infrastructure, Maritime Constructions, Vasse Joint Venture, WBHO SRG Joint Venture and Metropolitan Road Improvement Alliance last night at the industry’s gala dinner event.
CCF WA CEO Andy Graham said the 29th CCF WA Earth Awards featured a strong field of 13 finalists across six categories.
“It’s a busy time for our industry and resources are scarce, so we’re very grateful to all finalists for taking the time to support the Earth Awards and demonstrate their commitment to excellence in civil infrastructure,” Mr Graham said.
“With the State Government’s massive transport infrastructure program dominating our sector’s pipeline of work, it was only fitting that three of the six category winners were road projects.
“Two category winners were local government projects, highlighting the importance of local government works to our members. The other category winner was a project delivered for Water Corporation, another important client to the local civil construction industry.”
Earth Awards for Excellence in Civil Construction Winners –
Project Value more than $75 million: Metropolitan Road Improvement Alliance (comprising Main Roads Western Australia, CPB Contractors, Georgiou Group, W.A. Limestone, GHD, BG&E and AECOM) for its Murdoch Drive Connection project.
This project connects Murdoch Drive with Roe Highway and Kwinana Freeway, improving access and journey times to major hospitals and the Murdoch Activity Centre. Placing the huge 48.5-metre-long bridge beams straddling the Kwinana Freeway was no small task and took more than six months of preparation. The Alliance worked closely with Main Roads to reduce the environmental impact of construction activities as much as possible and environmentally sustainable crushed recycled concrete was used as pavement material on the Kwinana Freeway Widening portion of the works.
Project Value $30 million to $75 million: WBHO SRG Joint Venture for its Wanneroo Road/Ocean Reef Road Interchange project.
Collaboration, innovation, open and effective stakeholder engagement and sustainable delivery were the drivers to ensure project success. A constrained site and needing to lower Ocean Reef Road by four metres and raise Wanneroo Road by three metres required a range of complex services and utilities relocations and modifications. Constructing a multi-grade solution on the site required an innovative traffic management approach including the concept of ‘building a road, to build a road’ and the development of ‘the Kraken’, which enabled multiple complex refigurations to match construction staging.
Project Value $10 million to $30 million: Vasse Joint Venture (comprising Westforce Construction and JWI Contracting) for its Vasse Diversion Drain Upgrade project.
Primarily designed to protect against a one-in-100-year flood event, the upgrade will also lead to future improvements in water quality, waterway health, and management of an internationally significant wetland system. This project is a leading example of how innovation, problem solving, design excellence, dynamic construction and successful client/contractor collaboration can deliver outstanding civil construction, community and environmental outcomes. More than six kilometres of the Vasse Diversion Drain was upgraded, and the Vasse River Diversion Dam reconstructed, during the eight-month project delivery window which also included the design of the pedestrian bridge and redesign of the concrete lined drain section. Despite unforeseen challenges, this project was delivered eight weeks early and half a million dollars under budget.
Project Value $5 million to $10 million: Maritime Constructions and Shire of Esperance for its Esperance Replacement Jetty project.
An innovative overhand construction approach, which included a customised piling guide system, significantly de-risked this highly complex jetty construction which would have potentially been hampered by weather if using traditional jack-up barge construction. Use of the piling guide system also enabled construction of three types of bridge decks – including a timber heritage section – using just the one frame. The project offered an ideal training ground for the enhanced development of Maritime Constructions’ engineers and supervisors who visited site to witness the system in action, providing the company with enhanced skill and confidence in applying similar systems on future projects.
Project Value $2 million to $5 million: Enviro Infrastructure for its Bridge 34 Structural Refurbishment and Widening project.
The bridge’s location on the major heavy haulage transport artery between Perth and the Great Southern meant detailed traffic management planning had to be undertaken, particularly when the deck overlay was removed and highway traffic reduced to a single lane. Due to extensive propping required, the project team decided to hardstand the entire underside of the bridge to the extent of the clearing limits, installing culverts to carry the flow beneath the worksite and allowing clear access for machinery and propping equipment across the entire site. This allowed work to continue in almost all conditions, effectively eliminating weather delays to the sub-structure works.
Project value up to $2 million: Enviro Infrastructure for its Whitfords Nodes Fitness Staircase project.
Located in Hillarys in an area of high environmental significance, the new structure at Whitfords Nodes Park was designed to become the ‘Jacobs Ladder or the North’ and will help to revitalise the area, becoming a focal point for group fitness, young families and community events. Innovative solutions were developed to reduce the clearing footprint and implement a crane lift plan which cleared the Tuart trees that framed the staircase. An unexpected environmental issue meant a versatile approach was needed to swap out concrete footings from the design and replace them with screw pile foundations, with the construction team working in exceptionally challenging conditions to install them.
