July

Bridgewater: Australia’s oldest lift span bridge refurbished

The federal-government-funded $8m upgrade of Australia's oldest surviving lift span bridge, the Bridgewater Bridge, is now in the final stages. The refurbishment is designed to give the heritage-listed bridge a further 15 years' life, by which time a replacement bridge should be in place.

CLEM 7 tunnel sweeps under Brisbane

It cost around $3bn; was financed by a syndicate of 24 banks; invested $50m per month into South East Queensland; is almost 7km long; employed more than 2000 people and involved extensive tunnelling under the Brisbane River and the CBD.

Hinze Dam is a tribute to engineering infrastructure 

Building dams is ‘big boys’ territory. With the Gold Coast’s Hinze Dam stage 3 construction nearing completion, the magnitude of the engineering feat is awe-inspiring.

John Holland Selected for South Morang Rail Extension Alliance

 

Sod turning ceremony starts $48m Reid Alexander Interchange

A ground-breaking ceremony for the Reid Highway, Alexander Drive Interchange project in Perth, took place on Sunday May 23.

Woomargama Bypass generators go green

As part of its environmental strategy, the Hume Highway Woomargama Alliance in southern NSW, has appointed Green Power Solutions to install a bio-fuel power station to power new site offices at the Woomargama Bypass.

Work starts on Sydney sports facility

Landcom has contracted Profile Landscapes Australia to build $7m of playing fields in Sydney’s north west suburb The Ponds

$110m tender packages put Gold Coast Rapid Transit on the rails

Showing a firm commitment to the Gold Coast Rapid Transit project Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese released tenders for $110m worth of roadwork contracts.

Australian Building and Construction Commission and industry union showdown

It was always going to happen. After quite a few appearances before the courts the CFMEU and the ABCC now appear to be on a collision course which could conceivably see the first union member jailed since a dispute on the waterfront in Melbourne in the 1960s. And weren’t there some protests, street marches and demonstrations when that occurred?

Deconstructing Human Resources

CASE STUDY: Kypreos Group

Mining, heavy industry construction set to fall 3% in 2010/11

According to BIS Shrapnel’s Mining and Heavy Industry Construction in Australia, 2009/10 – 2023/24 report, overall mining and heavy industry construction is expected to fall 3% in 2010/11, the first such decline since 2004.

New Brisbane bridge opens 6 months early

More than 100,000 Queenslanders walked across the duplicate 1.6km Gateway Bridge, to celebrate its opening six months ahead of schedule and take in the view from 50m above the Brisbane River, with fish and chips and sausage sizzles for refreshment.

New project wins mark SMEC’s 40th anniversary

SMEC, the Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation, is celebrating the 40 year anniversary of the company’s inception this month.

On top of operator safety: Cat excavators with ROPS

Factory-fitted ROPS technology provides peace of mind for Caterpillar customers. Caterpillar released its excavators with factory-fitted ISO 12117-2:2008 compliant ROPS technology in March. A few months on, the company spoke to three customers to find out how the technology and added machine features impacted their work sites.

From the CCF President

Responses to OH&S article generates more on the issue

From the CCF CEO

Resources Super Profits Tax a massive political issue

Some lessons in employee appreciation

Towards the end of June I spent a few days promoting the magazine at Primex, an agricultural and civil contracting show at Casino, on the NSW north coast. As always at such an event, you meet an interesting cross section of readers and potentially new readers and hear their stories.

Tighter margins increase contractual disputes

Disputes within the construction sector have noticeably increased within the last year, and are symptomatic of a tightening of margins from the top down, says RICS Dispute Resolution Service’s manager Russell Welsh.

Women’s business leadership in crisis