McConnell Dowell’s resident team in American Samoa has boosted its workload with the award of three new contracts to be delivered between July 2016 and September 2017.
These contracts are the latest in a long and successful history in American Samoa for McConnell Dowell, beginning in 1989.
Continuing our longstanding relationship with the American Samoa Government, we have been contracted by the Department of Port Administration to dredge Faleasao harbour in the Manu’a islands. This project to deepen the harbour will create safe access for the new Government vessel which will run regular passenger trips from Tutuila to the Manu’a islands.
Drawing on our experience in roading resurfacing, rehabilitation and repair, the American Samoan Department of Public Works (DPW) has contracted McConnell Dowell to undertake further road rehabilitation works between the villages of Auma and Afao on the main island of Tutuilla.
McConnell Dowell has a well-established roading capability in the Pacific Islands and has completed numerous contracts across Tonga, Tuvalu, Kiribati, American Samoa, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia.
Also on Tutuilla, McConnell Dowell is looking forward to assisting the United States Army Corps of Engineers with a programme of building refurbishment works at the US Army Reserve barracks in Tafuna.
McConnell Dowell is pleased to announce the awarding by Rio Tinto of the construction contract for the Amrun Export Facility, to support Rio Tinto’s future mining operations south of Weipa in Far North Queensland.
Working with Rio Tinto’s Amrun Project team, McConnell Dowell will construct a 642 metre jetty and a 306 metre wharf. The jetty will be comprised of 26 spans, each 24 metres in length, of a traditional two pile bent structure. The wharf will be an innovative jacket and topside module construction aimed at reducing work over water and therefore safety risks. There are seven jacket structures each weighing up to 850 tonnes and six topside modules each weighing up to 1295 tonnes, which will be installed by a Heavy Lift Vessel. The award includes the provision of all offshore mechanical and electrical works.
In reflecting on the award, McConnell Dowell’s Managing Director of Australia, Jim Frith said
“Rio Tinto and Bechtel’s collaborative approach to procurement enabled out team to contribute to the development of innovative engineering solutions that fully addresses the projects challenges and delivered against each of Rio’s key project objectives. This is an excellent award for McConnell Dowell and continues our long standing leadership in the marine construction industry.”
The McConnell Dowell team will oversee and carry out scaling and ground support of the bluffs above Sumner Road, excavate a large catch bench below the bluffs to catch any falling rocks, and construct a large reinforced earth embankment. All of these measures will protect future road users from the risk of rockfall.
McConnell Dowell has been constructing major infrastructure in Christchurch since 2005 and has been involved in the rebuild of Christchurch since 2011 as part of the SCIRT alliance, undertaking repairs to horizontal infrastructure including roads, bridges and water and wastewater pipes and pump stations. We are pleased to be able to continue to assist the Christchurch community with ongoing repairs, remediation and infrastructure development.
The significant changes we have made at McConnell Dowell are:
- Simplified our organisation – reducing layers of management and improving our project support functions at both the corporate and operational level;
- Refreshed our leadership team – introducing four new executives into the organisation and elevating our leaders in New Zealand and South East Asia to our executive leadership team. Meet our new leadership team here.
- Strengthened our technical capability and capacity – centralising our leading technical and engineering personnel into one focused team to better support projects with our Creative Construction solutions;
- Strengthened our project delivery capability and capacity – reinforcing our operational leadership and empowering our project management teams to make them more reliable and responsive; and
- Refocused on our customer relationships – seeking collaborative relationships that best achieve optimum business and project outcomes.
We are pleased that in recent weeks we have been awarded several new projects of significant value within all our operating regions, and we are currently focused on new tender opportunities where we can bring differentiating value.
In the meantime we are pleased to introduce you to McConnell Dowell’s new executive leadership team.
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.
Pic caption: McConnell Dowell founders Jim Dowell (left) and Malcolm McConnell (right)
