McConnell Dowell - Creative Construction

For the second time in three years McConnell Dowell has taken out Australia’s pre-eminent engineering construction award, this time for the delivery of Rio Tinto’s Chith Export Facility, near Weipa in Far North Queensland.

The Australian Construction Achievement Award was created by the Australian Constructors Association (ACA) and Engineers Australia to recognise and reward innovation and the highest standard of work in the Australian construction industry.

The winning project comprises a 650m access jetty, a 350m loading wharf and an onshore conveyor system that will service Rio Tinto’s Amrun bauxite mine.

This was a large, complex and remotely located construction project that has revolutionised the design and construction approach for large-scale marine infrastructure delivery.

Innovatively designed by Jacobs, constructed in 10 months by McConnell Dowell and with constructability input and oversight from Bechtel; modularisation was at the heart of the solution, and the project team took it to new levels in scale and breadth.

The 350m wharf structure was split into seven, first-of-a-kind ‘jacket’ modules (the substructure) and six topside modules.

Weighing approximately 680 tonnes each and standing 30m high, the jacket modules with integrated dolphins (Jacketed Wharf with integral Dolphins (JWD)) reduced the number of permanent wharf piles required from 100 to just 28, minimising environmental impact to marine life.

The wharf topside modules, placed on the jackets, ranged from 600 to 1400 tonnes and were fabricated complete with all services, conveyors, concrete roadways and access walkways.

In true ‘plug and play’ fashion, the JWD modules were delivered and installed by a heavy-lift ship in a safe, clean and efficient operation.

The 650m access jetty was constructed using McConnell Dowell’s cantilever traveller frame. Developed for efficiency, repeatability and safety, this method minimised high-risk marine-based construction and saw each complete bent delivered in just three days.

Rio Tinto purposely chose an Early Contractor Involvement approach for the Project and it is an outstanding case study in collaboration, showcasing the benefits of open and respectful relationships between owner, project manager, designer and contractor. The ability to leverage the vast experience and technical acumen from those around the table resulted in the development and delivery of a solution that:

saved 300,000 job-hours
reduced overall build time by 12 months
reduced capital expenditure by $40M
reduced environmental impacts
and achieved a remarkable safety record of zero Lost Time Injuries.

The CEO of McConnell Dowell, Scott Cummins, said the project once again showcased McConnell Dowell’s leadership in marine construction and the team’s ability to collaboratively develop and implement creative customer-focussed solutions.

In accepting the award, McConnell Dowell’s Project Director Graeme Brown was generous with his thanks and made special mention of the Wik-Waya people of Weipa, the Traditional Owners of the area. The deep understanding and personal interaction between the project’s workforce and the Traditional Owners was a driving force behind the Project’s success.

Commenting on the announcement of the winner, ACA President Craig Laslett said that the winning project showcases the highly innovative solutions, teamwork and skills that constructors develop to overcome the technically challenging issues associated with the construction industry.

The Chair of the Judging Panel, Mark Dohrmann said of the winner: “McConnell Dowell’s execution of this challenging project was a standout for its comprehensive achievement of all the major judging criteria including on-time completion of a difficult and complex construction project in a remote region, timely responses to quality issues overseas, exemplary safety, environmental sensitivity, and close collaboration.”

Learn more about the Chith Export Facility project

Award: New Zealand Business Hall of Fame 2016

Recipient: Malcom McConnell

McConnell Dowell co-founder, the late Malcolm McConnell, was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame yesterday evening.

Roger McRae, the company’s current Managing Director for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, and McConnell Dowell co-founder Jim Dowell, attended the event at the invitation of Malcolm’s family to celebrate the occasion.

Malcolm is considered a “pioneer of New Zealand’s modern engineering industry”...

He and his business partner Jim Dowell founded the company in Auckland in 1961 with the vision of ‘doing things better’. By the end of the 1970s McConnell Dowell had expanded into six more countries and had won projects like the Marsden Point Power Station (NZ’s first 1 million pound contract) and the Maui pipeline (The largest contract awarded in New Zealand at the time). Today, McConnell Dowell is active in 18 countries across Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, South East Asia and the Middle East.

The innovation Malcolm championed remains a hallmark of McConnell Dowell’s work to this day. At Marsden Point, he and his team applied world-leading flotation and submerge construction techniques. He also developed innovative cross-country pipelining techniques, helped form two organisations to export New Zealand’s engineering, technical and management skills and services, and played a part in forging relationships with multinational organisations such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, the World Health Organisation, and the Asian Development Bank. He was also one of the initiators of Geothermal Energy New Zealand, and a director of New Zealand Railways Corporation, the DFC, the Saudi NZ Capital Corporation and NZ Steel.

Malcolm’s passion for ‘making things better’ also extended to his support for a range of charitable causes including education, NZ Opera, and Outward Bound, which McConnell Dowell still makes available to employees through a scholarship programme.

Malcolm passed away in 1995 and is remembered as a man of immense passion, energy, drive and vision.

award NZ HallOfFame 1

Pic caption: McConnell Dowell founders Jim Dowell (left) and Malcolm McConnell (right)

Event: Civil Contractors NZ Awards 2016

Award: Life Membership

Project: Joe Edwards, Operations Manager, New Zealand

For services to CCNZ including 13 years' service on the National Executive, including two years as President.

The Port Capacity Project for the Port of Melbourne included the design and construction of 1.5 kilometres of wharf, the dredging of over 1.8 million cubic metres of spoil, upgraded navigational aids and the extraction of strongly embedded previous piles weighing up to 80 tonnes. It presented operational, environmental, engineering and geotechnical challenges.

Speaking at the completion of the project in 2016, Port of Melbourne Program Manager – Maritime Infrastructure Delivery Hany Wardan praised McConnell Dowell’s contribution: “They realised our vision for Webb Dock (and) added tremendous value throughout the project. They reinvented the design and delivered an outstanding result... The quality of project execution was nothing short of exceptional.”

In accepting the Australian Construction Achievement Award, McConnell Dowell’s Project Director Jim Miller thanked the Port of Melbourne, design partner Arup as well as key project partners Jacobs, Heron Dredging and Austral Construction.

“The award is recognition of years of dedication by many people. They lived and breathed the fundamentals of our team charter displaying and holding themselves true to behaviours around, trust, respect, accountability, honesty, empathy and resilience,” he said.

Commenting on the announcement of the winner, ACA President John Flecker said that the winning project, by constructor McConnell Dowell, showcased the highly innovative solutions that constructors develop to overcome the technically challenging issues associated with today's mega projects.

The Chair of the Judging Panel, Mr Peter Godfrey said of the winner: "The maritime package had to be completed adjacent to other major construction activities and a working port. The Webb Dock East component was complex and multi-faceted, requiring high levels of coordination with an operational dock, undertaken within a constricted and busy footprint."

“The project is an outstanding example of collaboration, innovation and creative construction.”

“Project Director Jim Miller and his team are to be congratulated on being awarded Australia’s most prestigious accolade against a field of five other worthy shortlisted contestants,” he said.

Click