Our early works team on the ARTC - Inland Rail Beveridge to Albury (B2A) Inland Rail project in Victoria reached an important milestone recently. Our project target of 17 per cent female participation was not only met, but completely knocked out of the park!  Over 45 per cent of the team (that’s 10 out of 22 staff) are females.
 
Great leadership you ask? Yes. Great recruiting? Yes. But more importantly, we have fantastically talented women working hard and smashing it in construction. Females are more strongly represented across our business than ever before, with the numbers rising by 64% since 2014.

One is Hannah Yap, our Environmental and Sustainability graduate on the B2A project. Here's what Hannah (pictured below) had to say...

"I am witness to women of all sorts driving the helm: women in engineering, women in leadership, women as strong mothers, women as role models, women who are deservingly respected and accomplished. I am here to tell you that this matters, representation matters, in the workplace and beyond that. It allows women like me to have confidence that a space can truly be created for change and there is a proper chance of shaking up the systemic (and personal) status quo."  

It was a proud moment for the McConnell Dowell team when the Governor-General of Australia, His Excellency David Hurley, commissioned the newly upgraded wharf at Republic of Fiji Naval Service (RFNS) Stanley Brown Base last month.

Construction on the new wharf was delivered through the COVID-19 pandemic and the team had to manage a number of challenges including supply chain changes, lockdowns and staff shortages to get the job done.

The completed wharf upgrade can now provide safe and secure berthing for the new Guardian-Class Patrol Boat (GCPB) which has been improving regional security since arriving to Fiji in early 2021.

As well as utilities for the maintenance and provisioning of the GCPBs, the upgrade also involved building a fully equipped gym for navy personnel.

The work is part of a wider programme funded by the Commonwealth of Australia to upgrade numerous ports throught the Pacific area.

The HMS Kikau was moored alongside the upgraded wharf and Fiji Navy personnel were bright in their whites on parade for the official ceremony.

A red crane boom is a temporary landmark feature in the riverside town of Warkworth, north of Auckland. Visible for kilometres, the boom marks the spot where McConnell Dowell are delivering Watercare’s Warkworth Pump Station in Lucy Moore Memorial Park.

The crane extension is the only indication to the surrounding community that there is a major construction project underway with the compact, efficient, and well managed site nestled neatly by the river.

The site footprint belies the extensive facilities being built, including two underground structures – one being a 17m by 10.5m wetwell/drywell rectangular chamber to a depth of 13 metres, and the other a 15m diameter circular emergency storage tank to a depth of 8 metres.

The pump station is a component of the Warkworth to Snells Transfer Pipeline scheme to convey wastewater from Warkworth to Snells Beach to cater for future growth and enable Watercare to decommission the existing Warkworth Wastewater Treatment Plant which discharges into the Mahurangi River.

The construction of the wetwell / drywell and the storage tank promotes the caisson (sunk shaft) method refined by McConnell Dowell on other projects in NZ and internationally. Simplified, this method of construction works by using the drag force of the soil that acts against the exterior and interior caisson walls. Excavating the soil inside the caisson reduces the drag force along the interior walls, allowing the caisson to sink under its own dead weight.

It was selected for the distinctive benefits it offers to the location and overall project delivery:

• A condensed construction area due to minimised excavation and working space required
• Eliminates the requirement for piling or other ground support systems for the underground structures
• Less noise and vibration impact on the surrounding community because there is no backfilling required
• Minimised time required on-site, which further reduces overall community impact
• Enhanced safety to site workers and park users
• Reduced carbon footprint as there is no material brought in for backfilling around the sunk structures
• Decreased impact and risk to the surrounding sensitive environment
• Negates challenges encountered with excavating in poor ground conditions

The project is due for completion at the end of 2023.

McConnel Dowell are proud to embrace wearable technologies on our sites. Here’s a couple of great examples of wearable technologies we’re trialling.

On a current road project we invited Position Partners to demonstrate their NavVis VLX wearable mobile mapping system.

NavVis uses multi-layer LIDAR sensors to capture 3-dimensional measurements, along with four cameras that take high resolution images to use with the point cloud created.

The scan undertaken on site covered an area of approximately 200m x 75m and took less than 30 minutes. Over 200 million points were collected in the point cloud data.

This technology allows quick and accurate data collection to complement traditional survey methods.  

Meanwhile, on a rail project, we hosted our first  virtual site tour completely hands free, using a RealWare head unit attached to our superintendent’s helmet.

The 100% voice-activated device provides little distraction, enabling the wearer to safely tour the site whilst conversing in a Microsoft Teams call.

All site noise is cancelled out, leaving the tour host’s voice crystal clear, to match the vision provided to those on the conference call.