McConnell Dowell has been awarded the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) contract by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) for a complex programme of work to strategically upgrade accommodation and infrastructure assets across the Pacific.

The Pacific Property System Project (PPSP) scope to construct MFAT’s chanceries, official residences, and staff housing spans seven countries – the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. It will ensure these important assets are fit for purpose and can continue to support New Zealand’s important work in the Pacific.

During the ECI stage the project team, which includes key asset management staff from MFAT, designers GHD, Design Group Stapleton Elliot (DGSE) and McConnell Dowell, will engage with staff and stakeholders to identify their requirements and future-proof the new facilities.

McConnell Dowell’s General Manager for the Pacific Islands, Brent Leach is pleased the team will be involved in the ECI process. “Identifying efficiencies and improving constructability is easier the earlier you are involved in the process, so it’s great to be working with MFAT during the initial design phase.  This is a fantastic opportunity for the team to collaborate with the client and design team and add value to the engineering and construction.”

The Pacific Islands are already seeing the impacts of climate change, and sustainability is a key driver for MFAT.

“Working with the Ministry to identify employment and training opportunities and ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the projects across the different islands are key drivers for the team,” says Mr Leach.

McConnell Dowell is a foundation member of indigenous business networks Akina and Amotai in New Zealand and has a large network of ‘local suppliers and services gathered from more than 50 years working in the Pacific. 

The ECI phase is expected to take nine months with early investigation and mobilisation planned for 2023.

Congratulations to the Echuca-Moama Bridge Project (EMBP) team who have won 2 prestigious Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) Golden Target 2022 Awards in recognition of their outstanding work delivering a hugely successful end-of-works event for the project.

The EMBP team, comprising our customer Major Road Projects Victoria and ourselves, were the Golden Target Award winners for the Regional Communications Campaign and also won a silver golden target award for the Experiential or Activation Campaign. The PRIA Golden Target Awards are Australia’s longest-running and most prestigious public relations and communications industry awards.

On a sunny Sunday in April, more than 8,000 people packed the project’s signature achievement, the new crossing over the Murray River, in what local media dubbed ‘the walk of the people’.

Our objective for the event was simple – to ensure the community felt connected to this historic moment and had exclusive access to the bridge prior to it opening to traffic the following day.

The event gave all members of the community a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk the region's newest river crossing before it opened to traffic. Attendees were treated to a pass-by from a flotilla of historic paddle steamers, thrilling stunts from aerobatic planes and performances from local marching bands.

To cater for people with mobility requirements, a convoy of buses transported more than 150 people on to the new bridge prior to the event opening to pedestrians, allowing mobility scooters to access the bridge.

The remarkable community turn-out to the event exceeded our anticipated attendance of 5,000 by 60%, with the project receiving great positive feedback, due in large part to the success of the event. In addition, residents have told us they believe the project will leave a lasting benefit for the community, which includes an impressive Aboriginal-themed artwork in Victoria Park, Echuca.

Find out more information about the Echuca-Moama Bridge Project.

It was an absolute delight to see our team awarded the 'Project Controls Innovation of the Year' at the recent Asia Pacific Project Controls Awards in Melbourne. 

The team were selected based on their innovative digital engineering solution for the construction of the Eumemmerring Creek Bridge, part of the Cranbourne Line Upgrade Project delivered by our Western Program Alliance (WPA). 

The team created a full "digital rehearsal" of the bridge launch including developing detailed temporary works and construction sequencing. Through this digital approach all potenital construction issues were resolved virtually, well in advance of any works taking place on site. And all of this was done online, with stakeholders collaborating remotely from their homes and locked down worksites.

Congratulations to the all involved.

For more information on the project and to see the bridge launch, click here.

McConnell Dowell is proud to be sponsoring the Women in Rail breakfast at AusRAIL 2022 in Brisbane next week, 5-7 December.

We have a strong history of supporting women in our business, and AusRAIL is the perfect event to recognise and celebrate the increasingly influential and important role women have in this sector.

AusRAIL is the national conference and exhibition of the Australasian Railway Association (ARA), organised annually to bring the industry together to engage on key issues in rail. 

Our Women in Rail breakfast is a sellout, but there's still plenty of tickets available for the AusRAIL conference.