October

Atlas Copco invests in new Australian HQ

Atlas Copco Construction Equipment, the newest division of Atlas Copco Australia, has moved into new regional headquarters in Seven Hills, Sydney.

Fleet of pavers help restore Eiffel Tower intersection

Visiting Paris in springtime was made fashionable by the 1952 musical April in Paris starring Doris Day and Ray Bolger.

Germans laid yellow asphalt for a dash of colour

Delitzsch, in the German Federal state of Saxony Anhalt, is not the only town to look fabulous in yellow.

Irish mixer turns JFK’s old asphalt runways into new concrete ones

Between 70 and 80% of milled asphalt from old John F Kennedy runways in New York, is being milled screened and recycled into new concrete, to handle the weight of the Airbus A380.

Skills centre simulator an Adelaide first

CIVIL TRAIN SA based at Dry Creek recently became home to the only mining dump truck simulator operating in the Adelaide region.

Wirtgen Australia opens new sales and service centre

In the presence of its president Stefan Wirtgen and about 150 customers, the German based Wirtgen Group opened a new Australian base at Penrith in Sydney’s west on August 10.

Big plans for former racetracks

Construction of The Parks track at Morphettville follows the recent closure of Cheltenham Park and Victoria Park racecourses in Adelaide. The two former racetracks are in the process of redevelopment.

Columbian dam deconstruction a complex challenge

Australian company DecoTEC has overcome a range of logistical and engineering challenges to successfully complete the structural modification of a remote hydro-electric dam in Colombia.

Phu My Bridge officially opened

The people of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, can now complete a quicker, safer and easier journey from the southern Mekong delta region to the central and northern parts of Vietnam, following the opening in early September of the landmark Phu My Bridge.

Premier SA racecourse has a new inner track

Morphettville Racecourse, also referred to as the Alan Scott Park Morphettville under the current sponsorship, occupies 60ha in Adelaide’s southwest. It’s home to the South Australian Jockey Club and is the premier metropolitan track in SA.

Rediscovered 1951 plan, key to Warragamba Dam dispute

In this article, we consider the principal’s obligations to correctly disclose the existence of documents relevant to site conditions. The article also highlights the potential for contractors, to claim additional costs where principals have not made accurate disclosure, irrespective of specific risk allocation provisions in the contract. These issues were considered in the case of Abigroup Contractors Pty Limited (Abigroup) v Sydney Catchment Authority (Catchment Authority), which was decided in 2007 and is still good law.

70-year earthmoving addiction persists, unabated

In a couple of my contributions to Earthmover, I wrote about Ken Wells, one of the old time sales reps, and his work with Britstand Machinery.

Aerial photos don’t hack it anymore

For more than 70 years, overlapped, vertical down aerial photographs, viewed in 3D, provided the best basis for determining what the surface of the Earth really looked like.

Are people your greatest asset?

If you consult a dictionary, you will find “assets” defined as inanimate things like machinery, notes, equipment, cash etc, owned by a person or an organisation. Why then do so many organisations claim that “our people are our greatest asset” when clearly they, by definition, cannot be?

ASV at forefront of rubber track skidsteers

The global economic crisis has caused a considerable slow down for the civil construction industry, which in turn, has seen construction equipment suppliers experience a fall in new equipment sales, according to recent statistics, somewhere in the region of 30

Experts analyse increase in bridge fall protection

Snugharness.com, an expert in fall protection equipment, has taken a look at the recent increase in bridge repair related safety equipment in the US.

Green Triangle forestry company crashes, puts contractors on hold

The collapse of managed investment scheme agribusinesses Timbercorp Ltd and Great Southern Ltd, has brought the anticipated harvest of eucalypt globulus (commonly known as blue gums) and export from Portland, to a sudden halt.

LNG, steel boost central Queensland’s recovery

Queensland is on the economic boil, despite the proposed ‘fire sale’ by government of some of its high maintenance assets, such as above ground minerals industry rail systems and the Port of Brisbane infrastructure.

Prestigious award for CCF branch CEO

The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia, has presented the prestigious Keith H Wood Medal to the Victorian CCF branch CEO Bob Seiffert, OAM, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to local government engineering and the Institute.

Privately-funded civil construction set to decline 15%

Engineering construction activity is set to decline 15% over the next two years, despite Federal Government stimulus and the likely start of work on the massive Gorgon LNG project, according to industry analyst and economic forecaster, BIS Shrapnel.

Qld company wins funding for innovative desalination

A low-cost desalination technology, developed by University of Queensland researchers through Queensland company Ceramipore Pty Ltd, has received $70,400 in federal funding.

Women an integral part of civil construction

Two young women, Olivia and Clare, were ambassadors recently for a unique back-to-work program managed by Civil Train SA, the training arm of the CCF SA in Adelaide.

Easy Guides hits the spot for construction induction

Easy Guides’ start up pack of learning materials for the new national construction induction card CPCCOHS1001A - Work Safely in the Construction Industry, has been purchased by all states and territories and noted by the National Quality Council (NQC) as training package support materials for the new national unit.

MEWPs are safe, productive and economical

Selection of Access Equipment, commissioned by UK-based Crown House Technologies, part of the Laing O’Rourke Group, has found mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs) to be safer and more effective compared with other methods for work at height.

Contracts Let October 2009