What To Expect At The #ConnectNZ City Rail Link Site Tour

Delegates of the 2019 NZ Summit will have a close look at the City Rail Link project (CRL), the first New Zealand project to be awarded ‘Leading’ Infrastructure Sustainability design rating from ISCA.  The CRL is jointly funded by the New Zealand Government and Auckland Council. 

Be part of a walk around early construction sites (Contract 1 (C1) and Contract 2 (C2)) of the largest transport infrastructure in New Zealand. The C1 and C2 contracts extend across 600m of the CRL route, and due to attendance numbers, it will not be possible to enter site.

Overall the CRL project represents a 3.45 km twin-tunnel underground rail link up to 42 metres below the city centre transforming the downtown Britomart Transport Centre into a two-way through-station that better connects the Auckland rail network.

It is the largest transport infrastructure project in New Zealand with unique challenges and demanding conditions, not only immediately adjacent to a live railway station but also excavating below sea level with the Waitemata Harbour only a few metres away. On top of that, some remarkable skills and innovation has been used to protect the heritage-listed Chief Post Office (CPO) building in lower Queen Street so that the tunnel boxes could be constructed beneath the building. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2024.

The tour will walk around the perimeter of the project stopping at viewing points to witness work underway. It will start from the Grid AKL and walk approximately 1.8 Km to Britomart Station. Smaller groups will be formed and escorted around the Britomart site as well as along Albert St before returning to the Grid AKL.

Contract 1 included establishing temporary accommodation for Britomart Station’s ticketing and customer service operations, the underpinning of the historic former Chief Post Office building, to allow the construction of the rail tunnels through and under Britomart Station and Queen Street to the site of the Commercial Bay development. Construction commenced in July 2016.

Contract 2 commenced in December 2015 with a ‘pipe jack’ to relocate a major storm water line in Albert Street between Swanson and Wellesley Streets and strengthening and bridging a section of the Orakei Sewer Main at the intersection of Victoria Street and Albert Street. From mid-2016 the contractor commenced piling and excavation of a trench along Albert St (cut and cover method). Construction of tunnels along Albert St from Customs Street to Wyndham Street followed and tunnels are currently approximately 90% complete in this area.

About the City Rail Link Project

The City Rail Link contributes to Auckland’s Vision to become ‘The World Most Liveable City’ and to New Zealand Government priorities including Ministry of Transport overarching priorities of supporting economic growth and productivity, delivering value for money and improving safety, and Ministry for the Environment’s priorities of NZ Waste Strategy, action on climate change objectives and greenhouse gas reduction targets.

The CRL is being designed and constructed to high sustainability standards aiming to set the benchmark for delivering sustainable infrastructure in New Zealand. CRL has been delivered in collaboration with a team of engineers and architects (led by Aurecon and includes Mott Macdonald, Arup and architects Grimshaw & Jasmax). The early contracts are being delivered by two Joint Venture contracts, Downer NZ and Soletanche Bachy JV for contract 1, and McConnell Dowell and Downer JV (Connectus) for contract 2.

At the completion of contracts 1 and 2 CRL tunnel will be complete from Britomart station to a point on Wyndham Street which is just before the first new station (Aotea Station).

Award is imminent for the remaining CRL construction package (Contract 3) which will complete the majority of the CRL tunnel plus the rail systems works, as well as development of two new stations (Aotea and Karangahape) and redeveloping the existing Mt Eden Station.

Other contracts involve Mt Eden contract for the construction of a new underground stormwater tunnel between Water and Nikau Streets to replace an existing adjacent pipe that will be in the way of the CRL tunnels, this is being delivered by March Bessac Joint Venture.  Additional wider networks improvements will be in place to allow for the CRL build and operations.

Tickets are still available for #ConnectNZ. However, there are a limited number of spaces available on the City Rail Link site tour. If you want to attend the site tour, it is recommended that you buy tickets soon.

Last week at their annual awards ceremony, Holcim Australia and New Zealand awarded the Sustainable Development Excellence Award to ViroDecs, Holcim’s range of readymix concrete to be represented by an Environmental Product Declaration.

ViroDecs came about as a direct result of listening to customers and understanding their needs, as well as the growing expectation for transparency and low carbon products in Australia and throughout the world.

“ViroDecs will assist our business to better understand the environmental impacts of our readymix concrete mixes and provide our concrete customers exclusive access to independent third-party verified life cycle data for CO2e emissions in our readymix concrete for the first time in Australia,” says Cyril Giraud, national development and sustainability manager for Holcim Australia.

The project kicked off in 2018 with a multidisciplinary team including specialists in environment, sustainability, technical, logistics, operations and marketing. Together, the team developed the brand ViroDecs and collected data from more than 190 concrete batching plants and 65 quarries across Australia to meet the rigorous data quality requirements for Environmental Product Declarations.

ViroDecs was launched at the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia’s annual conference in September last year and quickly gained interest from attendees including contractors, government departments and sustainability practitioners. The team have since followed this up with pit-to-pour tours and presentations at the request of a number of the interested parties.

Earlier this year, ViroDecs has been showcased at the Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society and Green Building Council of Australia’s annual conferences.

Next month, in an Australian first, ViroDecs will be registered with the Australasian EPD scheme and will help shape the way the construction industry analyses the environmental impact of buildings and infrastructure.

For more information about ViroDecs, check out their website.

Left to right: Duncan Harris – Executive General Manager Aggregates, Glenn Simpkin – National Sales and Marketing Manager Concrete, Cyril Giraud – National Development and Sustainability Manager, Evan Smith – Environment Manager QLD, George Agriogiannis – CEO Holcim Australia and New Zealand.

 

The IS High Flyers video series identifies and showcases projects which have achieved Level 3 scores across a variety of ISv1.2 credits.

The purpose of these videos is to share successes and knowledge, and to gain insight into the best implementation of sustainability.

The third video of this series explains how the team on the Metro Tunnel Early Works project achieved a Level 3 score on the Mat-1 Credit.

Here’s how they did it:

ISupply Launches In Brisbane

The Queensland IS Community gathered last week at Arup’s beautiful offices to celebrate the launch of the ISupply Directory.

The ISupply Directory connects sustainable suppliers with projects and assets undertaking the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating scheme. Since 2012, over $120bn worth of infrastructure projects and assets are in engaged in the IS rating scheme. The ISupply Directory provides a unique opportunity for suppliers to market their products and services to projects that have requirements through the IS rating, and for IS rating partners to identify suppliers that will help them achieve sustainability outcomes rewarded under the scheme.

Attendees heard presentations from sponsors Arup and Liberty, as well as Transurban, Holcim, Vital and Emesh.

ISupply will be launching in Sydney on 11th April, as well as in Auckland at #ConnectNZ, and Perth at the WA Conference.

Brisbane ISupply Launch in partnership with:

OzHarvest Team Day

At ISCA we believe that strong teamwork leads to improved collaboration, productivity and creativity.

Last Friday the ISCA team joined the OzHarvest Organisation, Cooking for a Cause. As a team we cooked 280 meals that were gratefully received by The Caretakers Cottage and Rough Edges.

OzHarvest is Australia’s leading food rescue organisation which provides excess food to charities and people nationwide. All of the food was ‘rescued’ – due to be thrown away after being deemed waste from supermarkets, events or photoshoots.  Helping OzHarvest was the perfect team building exercise, as the team learned culinary skills from professional chefs, the importance of making use of every last piece of food, and had a great time doing in doing so.

ISCA have identified SDGs 1 (No Poverty) & 2 (Zero Hunger) as the ones in which we have the least impact, so in supporting OzHarvest we are able to make a small contribution towards those goals.

Assessing responsible procurement in construction – your help needed to complete a quick survey

ISCA is working with the UTS Business School to assess purchasing practices in the infrastructure and construction sector in relation to social and environmental issues. 

ISCA plans to publish and share the results with the industry, so as to enhance sustainability awareness and practice amongst procurement professionals.

The survey will take about 10 minutess to complete and your response is strictly anonymous and confidential.

Your participation is extremely important to the success of this project.  We encourage you to participate by clicking the link below.

ISCA Sustainable Procurement Survey.

buildingSMART Australasia and GS1 Australia sign Memorandum of Understanding to advance global standards in the construction industry

buildingSMART Australasia, the vendor-neutral and not-for-profit body that leads the development of open digital information flows across the built asset economy, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GS1 Australia to enable the construction industry to benefit from their combined expertise using the standards and services they deliver.

The use of global buildingSMART and GS1 standards, for product identification and exchange of product data, is critical in addressing today’s challenges of digitalisation in the construction sector.

“This MOU presents an exciting opportunity to build the foundation for greater efficiencies in Australia’s building industry using open Building Information Modelling (BIM) standards for design and construction, and GS1 global standards for product identification and verification,” said Maria Palazzolo, CEO and Executive Director, GS1 Australia.

David Mitchell, buildingSMART Australasia’s Chairperson said, “Enhanced traceability applications to improve product authentication across the construction and asset management sector will help build compliance and minimise the effects of structural building failures and cladding fires like those we’ve seen recently.

“Having a better understanding of building projects with the adoption of a digital system that checks products against specifications and can identify products that have been recalled will bring positive and much needed change for the industry.”

Currently, there is no comprehensive digital framework in the construction industry to track and capture data about the products and materials used throughout the construction project lifecycle.

Liberty Steel’s Customer Experience Manager David McNeil said, “For over 15 years, GS1 standards have been critical in Liberty Steel Australia’s efforts to facilitate electronic trading and product traceability. Now, as the construction market increasingly demands full traceability of products throughout the supply chain, for both compliance and sustainability, integrating GS1 standards into BIM is a logical and essential part of that journey.”

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About GS1 Australia

GS1 Australia is the Australian member of GS1, a not-for-profit global organisation that develops and maintains the most widely-used supply chain standards in the world and a leader in facilitating efficient international business.  GS1 Australia currently serves 22 industry sectors and supports more than 19,000 members nationally to improve supply chain efficiency and cost effectiveness by adopting best practice GS1 global standards. For more information visit www.gs1au.org

About buildingSMART Australasia

buildingSMART Australasia is a not-for-profit industry-led volunteer organisation operating in Australia and New Zealand that develops data sharing standards, provides tools and training, and drives the adoption of openBIM for use in the construction industry. For more information visit www.buildingsmart.org.au

Join Our Team – Membership Manager

Join the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) as our Membership Manager. Be part of a team that enjoys driving change, creating value and making a genuine impact.

You will be responsible for implementing our market engagement strategy to drive member value as well as execute annual acquisition and retention activities across the infrastructure supply chain.

About ISCA

The Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) is a member-based not-for-profit and the peak industry body for advancing sustainability outcomes. ISCA’s purpose is to accelerate sustainability in infrastructure through collaboration. ISCA is a valued membership organisation representing all key stakeholder groups associated with the infrastructure supply chain, and actively pursues engagement through our IS rating scheme, building market capability, working with partners to innovate and actively share successes to catalyse positive outcomes for communities, the workforce, environment and economy.

Role and Responsibilities

The Membership Manager supports the delivery of the Engagement strategic area to drive member value as well as annual acquisition and retention activities. Reporting to the General Manager, Industry Engagement, you will work closely with the ISCA team and industry stakeholders. You will implement our market engagement strategy creating value for members and raising awareness about all to ISCA offerings (such as ratings, training and workshops, policy mapping, etc.). In addition to managing the day-today requirements of our growing member base and ISupply program you will establish new member relationships across the supply chain.

Knowledge & Experience

Essential Knowledge & Experience

• Experience working for a member-based association, not-for-profit or social enterprise
• At least three years’ experience working in:
  • business development, relationship management or sales roles; and/or
  • the sustainability, infrastructure, construction, property or heavy industries sector/s
• Highly developed interpersonal and relationship building skills
• Proven ability to negotiate and manage stakeholder expectations
• A positive, proactive and energetic approach to business
• A client centric approach
• Professional and organised manner
• Ability to work effectively independently and in a team environment

Desirable Knowledge & Experience

• Suitable qualification in a relevant discipline
• Experience working with the infrastructure supply chain
• Experience working with all levels of Government

How to apply

Send along your resume (no more than 3 pages) and a 1-page cover letter outlining how you meet the position description, and why you would like to join our team to info@isca.org.au before Tuesday 9 April 2018.

ISCA is an equal opportunity employer and celebrates diversity of all kinds. We encourage all people to apply.

Applications received will be removed of any identifying information such as gender, race, age, parental status, disability or sexual orientation to limit unconscious bias before being provided to the hiring manager.

For more information please call ISCA on 02 9252 9733 or email info@isca.org.au.