Company Profile

In marine environments, where the margin for error is razor-thin, temporary works aren’t mere enablers—they’re foundational to safe, efficient delivery.

Take the Swanson Dock upgrade at the Port of Melbourne. Our temporary works team engineered an innovative fender access platform, earning the a WorkSafe Victoria award for “Best Solution to a Specific Workplace Health and Safety Issue” 

Here’s what set it apart:

• Comprehensive access with one setup – The platform spanned 15 × 4 m and included removable mid‑level decks, enabling seamless access to all faces of the fender beams—front, soffit, and rear—for hydro-demolition, rebar replacement, and gunite spraying.
• Spatial efficiency in live operations – Designed to work within a daily operation window on the busiest container terminal in Australia, the platform kept works tightly within a small footprint.
• Reusability factors in long-term value – Not a one-off rig—it was engineered to be reusable for future fender rehabilitation works, reducing waste and delivering cost efficiencies over time.
• Award-level impact – The solution directly addressed specific HSE risks of working over water, giving our crews a safer, more controlled environment to complete high-risk tasks without compromise.

Why Temporary Works Matter

1. Prioritising safety at early design stages – Proactively engineering safe access platforms significantly diminishes risk in live marine settings.

2. Driving productivity through better access – Easier, safer access means faster cycle times and fewer quay-side delays.

3. Enabling precise engineering works – Demolition, rebar placement, and spraying all demand stable, safe working environments—temporary works deliver just that.

4. Promoting sustainability and reuse – Modular, reusable temporary works not only save time but also cut embodied carbon across projects.

By spotlighting temporary works as a core part of project delivery—not an afterthought—we’re reshaping how marine construction tackles safety, efficiency, and sustainability.

On the Granite Island Causeway Project in South Australia our team used the 'hand over hand' construction method to minimise environmental impacts and ensure delivery on time.

The 'hand over hand' method employs three concurrent work fronts:

• Front one installing the permanent piles
• Front two installing the grouted HDPE sleeves and the precast headstocks
• Front three installing the precast longitudinal girders and decks. 

As the structure advances out into the water it acts as a construction platform for the work crews to build the next stage. Each work front takes a similar duration, ensuring maximum certainty in productivity and schedule.  

Analysis was conducted on various construction approaches during the tender phase, including the use of jack-up barges or a temporary bridge structure to facilitate construction. However, the 'hand over hand' method was the only one capable of achieving completion by the target date. 

The other benefit of the method is its minimal footprint. Minimising the impact on the sensitive marine environment was a key consideration during the tender and design phases of the project. 

The adoption of the method, along with the use of precast prestressed deck units which pushed the span out as far as possible, minimised the number of pile driving operations further reducing the impact on the marine environment.  

The design and construction methodology was fit-for-purpose and extremely efficient. It resulted in on time and on budget completion and had a low impact on Victor Harbor's rich marine ecology.  

We helped revolutionise the design and construction approach for large-scale marine infrastructure on Rio Tinto's Chith Export Facility project in remote Far North Queensland.

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, reduced the number of permanent wharf piles required from 100 to just 28, minimising environmental impact to marine life – a core focus for the Chith Export Facility team.

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 modules were delivered and installed by a heavy-lift ship in a safe, clean and efficient operation.

The project, completed in just 10 months, was awarded the Australian Construction Achievement Award by Engineers Australia and the Brunel Medal by the Institute of Civil Engineers (UK).

McConnell Dowell has a long association delivering infrastructure projects in American Samoa and other Pacific Islands. Our project teams working in the islands become part of these close-knit communities and they often see opportunities for the team to give back to the locals they are working with.

In a reciprocal relationship the local people provide projects with talent for construction and we in turn look for substantial ways we can use machinery, materials or skills to benefit the local people in return. 

Some of the community projects the team find most rewarding involve upgrading school facilities for local children. At Tafuna High School this meant responding to a request from the Parent Teachers Association to fix up the school’s drainage and create an access road to the carpark using McConnell Dowell-donated plant, labour and materials. Here you can see the drainage works well on their way and the access road starting to take shape.

We also supported the Pavaiai High School's aim to create an all weather assembly area by donating recycled millings and asphalt to the project. Before the resurfacing students had to sit on muddy grass when they gathered during bad weather. As you can see from the photos, they now have an area they can use to gather or play whatever the weather.

On the Granite Island Causeway project in South Australia, our team designed and implemented a "shroud and bubble curtain" to stop marine piling noise from disturbing the Southern Right Whale (SRW) and other marine fauna, such as the Australian sea lion and little penguins.

Prior to the solution being developed and approved, a local whale protection group strongly objected to piling occurring during whale season, which had the potential to impact the project's schedule and budget.

The bubble curtain was designed to reduce the noise levels by scattering, absorption, reflection, and refraction of the sound waves. The curtain design, along with some other piling modifications, gave sufficient confidence for federal approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act for piling during the whale season.