CCF WA NEWS

The bar for civil construction excellence in Western Australia has been raised again, with seventeen impressive infrastructure projects contesting the 2022 Civil Contractors Federation WA Earth Awards and seven category winners named.

CCF WA CEO Andy Graham said the Earth Award judges commented on the high calibre of entries this year and said they consider 2022 presented a significant milestone in civil construction excellence.

Transport infrastructure projects featured strongly on the night – five of the seven category winners were Main Roads WA projects, underscoring the importance of the State Government’s massive transport infrastructure program to the civil construction sector.

Water Corporation projects also featured strongly, with four finalists and one category winner. A special Judges Award was awarded to another Water Corporation project.

The seven category winners and Judges Award winners are listed below with information about the projects. More information, and high resolution images of the award presentations, are available on request.

Earth Awards for Excellence in Civil Construction Winners –

Project Value more than $150 million: Armadale Access Alliance (comprising Laing O’Rourke, BG&E and Main Roads Western Australia) for its Armadale Road to North Lake Road Bridge project.

This project comprised two grade separated roundabouts at Tapper Road and Solomon Road to create a duck and dive alignment, a new bridge over Kwinana Freeway, new freeway on- and off-ramps and collector-distributor roads, upgrades to Armadale Road, and improved access and parking for Cockburn Station. Major enabling works were required for the threespan bridge across Kwinana Freeway. The western abutment works required an anchored sheet pile wall to retain an existing high-pressure gas main, and the eastern abutment works required a diversion of a major telecommunications service. The bridge beam lifts and superstructure works were also particularly challenging.

Project Value $75 million to $150 million: Downer for its Denny Avenue Level Crossing Removal project.

Downer to completed a multidisciplinary project involving the removal of the Denny Avenue Level Crossing, construction of a rail bridge and road underpass, upgrade of the surrounding road networks and revitalisation works in the Kelmscott town centre. After award, the client requested a program change, bringing forward the closure of the dangerous level crossing.

Through innovative products and working methods, Downer achieved this key milestone four months ahead of schedule, even with the challenges of complex service removals and COVID-related logistical issues. Downer’s collaborative approach not only delivered a high-quality project; the company also successfully trialled new products and working methods – increasing safety, sustainability and efficiency; and leaving a lasting legacy for the local community, the Public Transport Authority and the wider civil construction industry.

Project Value $30 million to $75 million: Georgiou Group and Main Roads Western Australia for the Karel Avenue Upgrade project.

The project involved the widening of Karel Avenue, over Roe Highway and the freight railway, to create a dual carriageway. From a design and construction perspective, the most challenging aspect of the project was widening the existing grade separation over rail, to accommodate the Thornlie to Cockburn passenger lines next to the existing freight lines. Another significant consideration was the interface with live services, including a high-pressure gas main and a fuel line servicing Perth Airport. Through clear communication with the client and the key stakeholders, coupled with regular planning workshops and programming meetings, Georgiou delivered the programmed works without any impact on these assets.

Project Value $10 million to $30 million: Georgiou Group for its Kwinana Freeway Pedestrian and Cycle Path project.

This path not only allows an uninterrupted journey between Mandurah and Perth CBD, it also improves safety by eliminating conflict between traffic and path users. Georgiou constructed 700 metres of new shared path, including a new 45-metre underpass, and upgraded a further 455 metres of existing path. The project site was approximately 800 metres long and 20 metres wide, with the busy Kwinana Freeway to the east and residential properties to the west. Georgiou overcame numerous challenges, such as protection of an existing water sewer main, live services and the tight project boundary. The company’s innovative approach not only influenced the final design, but also the construction methodology, saving the client time and money.

Project Value $5 million to $10 million: Rob Carr and Water Corporation for the Gnangara Branch Sewer Section 2 project.

As part of significant upgrades to the sewer network in Perth’s northern suburbs, Rob Carr was engaged by Water Corporation to construct a new branch sewer along Lancaster Road in Wangara. The location and proximity of the existing infrastructure, of in-ground services and of structures along the alignment itself created a number of site access and constructability challenges. Rob Carr overcame a number of site access and constructability challenges created by existing infrastructure, in-ground services and structures along the alignment. Though the conditions were very challenging, the project was completed successfully and well ahead of the contract schedule.

Project Value $2 million to $5 million: Enviro Infrastructure for its Hector Street Footbridge Refurbishment project.

Main Roads engaged Enviro Infrastructure as head contractor to undertake remedial works to this footbridge, which spans the Mitchell Freeway and Joondalup rail line in Osborne Park. Enviro’s scope of works included protective coating maintenance, weld inspection testing and repairs, and deck plank end repairs. To deliver these essential remediation works, Enviro and its key subcontractors worked almost 7 months onsite, all works being nightshift, with no impact on road and rail users or assets.

Project Value up to $2 million: Foundation Engineering for its Multi-Unit Development, 147 Hastings St Scarborough project.

Foundation Engineering provided an alternate shoring system using steel piles and chemical grout injection for the development of a series of dwellings on the Scarborough beach front. Due to the sloping nature of the site, some piles were required to support the existing structures either side of the property during the excavation. However, there were other sections of the site that required the piles be exposed up to several metres. The installation rig required was able to handle the tricky site conditions resulting from having such a steep, sandy surface. In comparison, a traditional CFA pile installation rig would have struggled to install concrete piles along such a steep run.

2022 WA Judges’ Award: SRG Global for its 20ML Karratha Water Tank and Associated Works.

The Judges Award is a discretionary award for a project which scores highly and which the judges consider to be worthy of special recognition. SRG demonstrated commendable planning, design and execution of the works to build a staged concrete structure with an expected lifespan of 100 years in a region where extreme weather events are prevalent.

The seven 2022 WA Earth Award category winners will represent the state at the CCF National Earth Awards on November 11 in Canberra.

• Urgent reform to Federal Government skills classification system needed to adequately recognise skilled trade-level occupations in civil construction
• Outdated ANZSCO classifications deny civil construction apprentices, and their employers, access to training incentives available to their peers in the building sector
• CCF’s National CEO is meeting with Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King today to push for reform.
• CCF WA has written to State Premier Mark McGowan and Training Minister Sue Ellery seeking their support ahead of the Federal Jobs and Skills Summit.

WA’s peak civil infrastructure body is calling for urgent changes to the Federal Government’s outdated skills classification system, to allow civil apprentices and their employers access to new training incentives available to other sectors with skills shortages.

The Civil Contractors Federation WA (CCF WA), in conjunction with CCF’s National office, wants civil occupations to be formally classified as skilled trades on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). This is a pre-requisite for funding under the Federal Government’s new Australian Apprenticeships Incentives System (AAIS).

CCF National CEO Chris Melham will push the need for urgent reform today (August 19) at an infrastructure jobs and skills roundtable hosted by Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit next month.

Mr Melham said reforming ANZSCO to give civil construction apprenticeships fair access to training incentives would be an important step in addressing major skill gaps in the civil infrastructure sector.

“As part of CCF’s 2022 Infrastructure Market Capacity Survey, respondents were asked to rank a number of threats to the delivery of the infrastructure investment pipeline, ranging from the availability of raw materials, through to the availability of skilled and unskilled labour,” Mr Melham said. “In each state and territory, the highest ranked issue was the lack of availability of local skilled tradespeople and professionals to undertake construction projects.”

Mr Melham said access to AAIS subsidies would address this by directly incentivising civil construction employers to take on more apprentices.

CCF WA CEO Andy Graham said he had written to State Premier Mark McGowan and Training Minister Sue Ellery seeking their support ahead of the Federal Jobs and Skills Summit, which they will both be attending next month.

“Thankfully our state government, through the Construction Training Fund and other incentives, recognises that civil construction apprentices in skilled trades such as pipelaying, directional drilling and plant operations deserve to receive the same funding as their counterparts in bricklaying, tiling and plastering,” Mr Graham said.

“But it’s a different story with Federal incentives, where the building trades get AAIS funding and the civil construction trades miss out thanks to the antiquated ANZSCO skill levels.

“The Federal Government is a major funding source for the massive program of transport infrastructure projects that is transforming Western Australia, so they should be well aware of the critical need to incentivise training and skills development in civil construction.”

Mr Graham said other sectors had also been highly critical of the ANZSCO system’s failure to reflect the modern skilled workforce. A recent Federal Parliament Standing Committee Inquiry received dozens of submissions from companies and industry groups calling for ANZSCO to be abandoned as a basis for determining occupational skill levels. The inquiry recommended that ANZSCO should be either scrapped or completely overhauled.

“For the civil construction sector, ANZSCO reform can’t some soon enough,” Mr Graham said. “And in the meantime, the Federal Government should take a common sense approach and include civil construction trades in the AAIS.”

A new report from WA’s peak civil construction body highlights the wide disparity in transparency by local governments when awarding works tenders, and recommends changes to bring WA into line with other states.

The Civil Contractors Federation WA report, Transparency in Western Australian local government tender evaluation, analysed the tender assessments, as published in council minutes and supporting documentation, of 29 of Western Australia’s largest metropolitan and regional councils.

The report awarded a Tendering Transparency Score out of 10 to each council, with points awarded for:

• Publishing the names of companies that tendered and the prices they submitted
• Publishing each bidder’s scores or ranking against price and non-price assessment criteria.
• Explaining how the scores were determined, and any other relevant information about how or why the successful tenderer was chosen.

One council, the City of Joondalup, scored a perfect ‘10’ by providing all of the information above, with a detailed summary describing the tender evaluation process and how decisions were made.

The Bayswater, Cockburn, Gosnells, Kalamunda, Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Perth, Rockingham, Swan, Wanneroo, and Dardanup councils also achieved a ‘pass’ mark of 5 or more.

Many councils surveyed in the report relied on the commercial-in-confidence provisions of the WA Local Government Act 1995 as justification for suppressing information.

CCF WA CEO Andy Graham said the WA legislation was out of step with local government laws in other states.

“The law in other states puts the onus on councils to explain why they have decided not to publish tender assessments,” Mr Graham said.

“Generally, other states only allow suppression where councils can show issues with confidential financial information or trade secrets.

“The South Australian legislation expressly bars councils from preventing disclosure of any reasons adopted by the council as to why a successful tenderer has been selected.

“We’ve recommended to the State Government that it replace the current blanket commercial-in-confidence provision with a modernised provision more in line with community expectations and with the practice in other states.

“The law in other states recognises that the very ‘local’ nature of local government procurement can make it more susceptible to probity issues and conflicts of interest, and therefore accountability and transparency are perhaps even more important than in other levels of government.

“Transparency of decision-making is of course a good thing in itself, but there are broader benefits too.

“We know that contractors highly value the feedback provided by published evaluations. They really appreciate getting a clear picture of where their submission was strong and where it wasn’t, and can use that feedback to improve their submission next time.

“For councils, this means that not only will they get a higher standard of submissions, but they will get more submissions, because there’s no doubt that contractors prefer to work for councils who are open and transparent.

“It’s even more important right now, with so much demand for construction work, that councils position themselves as a client of choice.”

Transparency in Western Australian local government tender evaluation is available for download online here. 

WA’s peak civil construction industry body says targeted relief for building contractors in the 2022/23 State Budget is no comfort for civil contractors on Government projects who are also battling rampant escalation of cost.

The Civil Contractors Federation Western Australia (CCF WA) says urgent action is needed to provide relief from onerous Government construction contracts that are forcing contractors to bear the brunt of recent massive cost increases and supply chain disruptions.

CCF WA CEO Andy Graham said the new $30 million scheme to assist building contractors working for the departments of Finance and Communities would not help hundreds of local businesses battling soaring costs on Government civil infrastructure projects.

“There is some cost relief for the civil construction sector in the Budget, mainly on a few high-profile, federally funded road and rail projects,” Mr Graham said.

“The budgeted cost of some major projects has increased by around 30 per cent, yet the allocations for all other transport projects has remained the same.

“CCF WA welcomes the acknowledgement of huge and unforeseen escalation on those major projects, but we are concerned that contractors on dozens of other Government projects are facing the same realities yet being forced to fight tooth and nail to have their fair and reasonable claims accepted.

“The standard watertight contracts used on many Government projects are designed to protect the budgeted project cost by any means possible. The contractor is expected to wear the cost of unexpected events or unavoidable delays that are out of their control.

“In normal times, we deal with that and take the occasional loss on the chin. But these are unprecedented times, and civil contractors can’t keep absorbing huge extra costs and mounting losses.

“It’s time to put aside the onerous contract and the legalistic mindset, work together and take an ‘open book’ approach that fairly reimburses all Government contractors for unavoidable extra costs.

“It’s certainly encouraging to see a $350 million provision for general construction cost escalation in the Budget – we now look forward to working with the Government to ensure this provision translates into timely action.”

How to attract, retain and promote women working in the civil construction industry was the issue of the day at this morning’s Women in Civil annual breakfast held by the Civil Contractors Federation Western Australia (CCF WA).

With just 20 per cent of women making up the civil construction industry nationally and Western Australia having the biggest gender pay gap in the country, gender diversity leaders recognised while there was positive work being done, there was still more to do.

CCF WA CEO Andy Graham said the business case was clear – more diversity has a positive effect on productivity and financial performance.

“Since 2011, CCF WA’s Women in Civil initiative has supported and celebrated diversity in the Western Australian civil construction industry,” he said.

“We launched our inaugural Women in Civil Mentoring Program in 2021 which is dedicated to providing support, guidance and professional growth opportunities to women working in civil construction.

“We recognise part of this challenge is making sure civil construction careers are a genuinely viable long-term career option. It’s important we have these discussions and keep moving in the right direction to provide career opportunities for both men – and women.”

Special guest speakers included Minister for Women’s Interests Simone McGurk, Champions of Change Coalition Program Director Tania Cecconi, and Clough Vice President of Strategy and Development in the APAC region Carl Titchmarsh.

Minister McGurk has led the State Government’s Plan for Gender Equality, while Ms Cecconi has been instrumental in shifting the conversation from fixing women to fixing workplaces and Mr Titchmarsh spoke off the back of Clough’s second Employer of Choice for Gender Equality Citation by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

Themes raised included workplace flexibility for both women and men, gender agnostic paid parental leave, government funded female leadership programs on major infrastructure projects, and women’s safety and security.

CCF WA’s Women in Civil Breakfast was supported by Kais Hire, CJD Equipment and Sitech.

Western Australia’s civil construction industry has been blindsided by a new State Government regulation that from today will force thousands of excavator operators to obtain a crane operator’s licence before they can perform straightforward lifting tasks on sites.

With the introduction of the new Work Health and Safety Regulations, WA is the only state in Australia that requires operators of earthmoving machinery to possess a crane operator’s licence when lifting and shifting loads.

Civil Contractors Federation Western Australia (CCF WA) CEO Andy Graham said the industry had largely been caught unaware by the new regulation.

“The new WHS regulations, comprising 800-plus pages, were only gazetted a few weeks ago and this sweeping change to licensing requirements is tucked away as a footnote to a schedule,” Mr Graham said.

“We aren’t aware of any forthcoming advice from WorkSafe about this change, and industry doesn’t appear to have been consulted.

“Underlining the haste and lack of consideration with regards to implementing this change, the newly mandated crane operator training is not even designed to train operators of earthmoving equipment.

“The crane operator licensing training packages are designed around the harmonised national WHS system, which recognises that a crane is nothing like an excavator, and vice versa. Sending thousands of excavator operators off for a crane licence will certainly be a windfall for training providers but it will do nothing for safety.

“If the Government was serious about improving safety, it would ensure the appropriate training in excavator operations – which covers safe lifting techniques – was being delivered to a more consistent standard. This is the sort of unintended consequence of departing from the national framework, which could have been avoided with consultation.”

Mr Graham said the new regulation had been introduced with no consultation, no advice, and no transition period. He said it was out of step with safety and training frameworks in every other state in Australia and would not improve safety.

CCF WA has urged the Government to defer implementation of this new regulation pending further consultation.

“Ultimately, this regulation is unnecessary and should be removed,” Mr Graham said.

The Civil Contractors Federation Western Australia (CCF WA) has welcomed today’s official announcement of the new Civil Construction Pilot Program by the Minister for Education and Training, the Hon. Sue Ellery.

CCF WA CEO Andy Graham said civil construction qualifications were now formally recognised as a trade, putting it on equal footing with traditional building trades, with civil construction apprentices receiving a trade certificate on completion of their Certificate III qualification.

“Together with our Civil Construction Industry Training Committee, it has taken considerable work and engagement to get to this point and is a huge step forward for the industry,” he said.

“With government investment in infrastructure at record levels and a strong pipeline of both public and private sector work, trade careers in civil construction now have the recognition they deserve. This is hugely important in attracting new people into the workforce, especially at a time of skills shortages in our industry.

“Not only is this an opportunity to increase both the number and quality of new workers entering the industry, but also to increase employer satisfaction with graduates.”

Mr Graham thanked the Construction Training Fund (CTF) for playing a vital role in helping to advance the proposal with the CTF now investing in wage gap funding to cover any wage difference between trainee and apprentice award rates, ensuring no business or apprentice will be financially worse off by transitioning to an apprenticeship.

“This will ensure the take-up of civil construction apprenticeships is strong and will help the pilot program’s success,” he said.

The decision by WBHO South Africa to put its Australian infrastructure business into administration highlights an ongoing profitability crisis right across the building and construction industry, including Western Australia’s civil infrastructure sector.

Reporting of WBHO Australia’s financial problems has understandably focused on the group’s high-profile Melbourne-based building division, Probuild. Closer to home, the group’s civil construction business, WBHO Infrastructure, is based here in Perth and a key player in the local infrastructure sector. WBHO Infrastructure’s excellence in infrastructure delivery has been recognised by multiple CCF WA Earth Awards, most recently last year for the Wanneroo Rd – Ocean Reef Road Interchange project. WBHO Infrastructure is currently part of the joint venture widening Mitchell Freeway from Hodges Ave to Hepburn Ave.

In a time of unprecedented infrastructure construction activity in Western Australia, it’s troubling that such a strong and capable civil contractor is thinking of closing its doors.

Our thoughts are with the WBHO-I team, who have to deal with this uncertainty on top of all the other pressures they’ve faced over the past two years during the pandemic.

This is a challenging time for all businesses in civil construction. We’re facing the disruptions and compliance burden of COVID-19 while in the midst of a boom in activity, with strong activity across the board in government works, in subdivision development and in resources construction.

While we have been fortunate in WA to have avoided project shutdowns, the pace of progress on projects has been significantly compromised by factors including border closures restricting the movement of people and companies; delays with the supply of materials and equipment; and rampant escalation in the costs of labour and materials.

All these factors have translated into totally unavoidable extra costs for contractors. With profit margins in the government infrastructure sector already wafer-thin, contractors can easily lose money on a project – and increasingly, that’s what is happening.

We are at risk of a profitless infrastructure boom, which will leave the local industry in worse shape than before.

In this environment, it’s more important than ever that when a contractor lodges a reasonable variation or delay claim, that claim is assessed fairly and quickly. Unfortunately, as WBHO alluded to in a statement this week, that’s often not the case, and contractors are all too often left carrying those unavoidable extra costs.

CCF WA believes it’s time for an urgent rethink of the way variation and delay claims are addressed. We need to progress from the current ‘just say no’ culture to a more balanced approach that recognises the importance of spending public funds wisely, while also ensuring that head contractors are not unfairly punished through delayed payment or non-payment where their claims are reasonable and justified.

The state government has been proactive in increasing protections for subcontractors through stronger security of payment laws, and rightly so. Now there needs to be a focus on speeding up payment to head contractors, many of whom must wait months or years to get their reasonable claims settled.

Despite the challenges, all civil contractors and suppliers appreciate the privilege of building the vital infrastructure that underpins economic development and improves our quality of life.

That’s why we do what we do, but increasingly more of our businesses are becoming unsustainable and more of our people are deciding they want a less demanding and stressful career.

The Government recognises this too, and in collaboration with industry is developing a long-term strategy for a sustainable civil contracting sector – a place where people want to work, where capable businesses are valued, and where there are pathways to growth.

The Office of Major Transport Infrastructure Development (OMTID) is leading the way by facilitating this strategy, and we look forward to working with them on its development and implementation.

Western Australia was highlighted as being at the forefront of innovation and technology in infrastructure at an industry event facilitated by the Civil Contractors Federation WA today. Innovations in civil construction are improving the safety of workers, reducing travel times and contributing to positive environmental outcomes.

Manufactured aggregates, innovative traffic management applications and Perth’s Smart Freeway network all featured with several Western Australian and Australian firsts.

Manufactured aggregate is a product which will be produced from the Incinerator Bottom Ash (IBA) resulting from the Avertas Waste to Energy (WTE) plant in Kwinana – Australia’s first large scale waste to energy facility. The WTE facility will process household waste ordinarily disposed of at landfill and convert it into electricity.

Blue Phoenix Group will transform IBA minerals into safe and reliable aggregates which can be used in civil construction works as a replacement for primary material, such as road base. Blue Phoenix Group’s site development in Kwinana is the first IBA processing facility in Australia.

Perth’s first Smart Freeway Network went live in August 2020 and has reduced congestion on the Kwinana freeway, saving an average travel time of five minutes on the Smart Freeway section despite a 13 per cent increase in traffic since the onset of COVID-19.

The project included technologies of Stopped Vehicle Detection (SVD), Lane Use Management Signs (LUMS), Dynamic Message Signs (DMS), and Automatic Incident Detection (AID) which uses a combination of radar and thermal units to detect incidents and obstructions to traffic in real time – another Australian first.

In the traffic management space, products and devices such as mobile barrier systems, combined traffic lights and booms, and auto cone trucks are being adopted in an effort to save lives, including those of traffic controllers.

CCF WA CEO Andy Graham said it was pleasing to see WA pioneering innovation and technology in civil construction.

“There is some great work happening through Main Roads relationship with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council and a lot of good work going on through the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, the waste reform advisory group and the construction and demolition reference group, as well as a highly successful Smart Freeway project now being extended to the Mitchell Freeway southbound.”

Presenters included Blue Phoenix Group South East Asia Managing Director Ian Lynass, Kwinana WTE Project Operations and Maintenance Director for Macquarie Capital Alan Jones, Managing Director of JDN Consulting and Engineering Solutions and Director of Prizstine Consulting Jason Gavranic, and President of the Traffic Management Association of Australia and Managing Director of WARP Group Stephen O’Dwyer.

The event was sponsored by W.A. Limestone, Construction Training Fund and Kais Hire.

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.