THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC WORKS ENGINEERING AUSTRALIA
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DARWIN INTERNATIONAL Public Works Conference
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THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC WORKS ENGINEERING AUSTRALIA
IPWEA NATIONAL BOARD President: Paul Di Iulio (SA) Immediate Past President: John Truman (NSW) Immediate Past President: David Harris (WA) Vice President: Michael Kahler (Qld) Directors: David Wiskar (Qld), Greg Moran (NSW), Angelo Catinari (SA), Mark Varmalis (Vic), Ross Goyne (Vic), Brian Edwards (Tas), Damion Beety (TAS) Martyn Glover (WA), Terry Blanchard (WA)
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012
National CEO: Chris Champion ph (02) 9639 3650, fax (02) 9283 5255 email cchampion@ipwea.org.au New South Wales: Mark Turner ph (02) 9267 6677, fax (02) 9283 5255 Queensland: Suzanna Barnes-Gillard ph (07) 3000 2200, fax (07) 3257 2392 Western Australia: John Ambrose ph (08) 9427 0870, fax (08) 9427 0871
■ SPECIAL FEATURES
South Australia: Jane Gascoigne ph (08) 8100 9975, fax (08) 8232 5455 email sa@ipwea.org.au
STORMWATER REVIEW
Tasmania: Gary Neil
Queensland – the ‘Smart Engineering State’
ph 0428 535 416 Victoria: Anne Gibbs ph (03) 9005 0860, 0417 376 930 email agibbs@ipwea.org.au
www.ipwea.org.au PUBLIC WORKS ENGINEERING is published by
Lvl 8, 574 St Kilda Rd. Melbourne 3004 PO Box 6137, St Kilda Rd Central 8008 ph (03) 8534 5000 fax (03) 9530 8911 www.commstrat.com.au Managing Editor: Ross Moody ph 08 9272 7735 mobile 0417 955 394 email rmoody@ipwea.org.au Editor: Rex Pannell email rex.pannell@halledit.com.au Advertising Manager: Yuri Mamistvalov ph (03) 8534 50081 mobile 0419 339 865 email yuri@commstrat.com.au Production Manager: Russell Montgomery
23 8
Victorian councils targeted over contaminated sites
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Road Construction and Maintenance
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Technology in Government
40
Pipeline and Water Rehabilitation
42
■ REGULAR REPORTS President’s Report
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CEO’S Report
4
Coming Events
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News
14
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Training Calendar
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IPWEA NATIONAL
PRESIDENT’S REPORT IPWEA PRESIDENT, PAUL DI IULIO
THE IPWEA’S PRESIDENT DISCUSSES THE RECENT JOINT MEETING HELD IN EARLY DECEMBER 2011.
Happy New Year! Hope you all had a fantastic festive season; however, as they say “all good things must come to an end”, so hopefully you have been able to ease your way back into work. I am looking forward to 2012 as I think there are enormous opportunities for IPWEA and with a collaborative approach I am sure no challenge will be too difficult. Joint Meeting In early December 2011, I facilitated a meeting with all the State Presidents, State Managers, Ingenium CEO, Chris Champion, and Ross Moody. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a meeting of this type has ever been held. Like all good teams there is a forming stage and, let me tell you, doing this in a local St Kilda hotel to the tunes of Billy Miller under the guidance of John Roydhouse on the Sunday night was a great way for this team to ‘form’. There is no doubt that good music and a couple of beers is a great way to build a bond; anyway, that is my management tip for this month. If you are forming a new team, go out have a few refreshments and enjoy each other’s company. There was a serious side to the meeting. It was very successful and it has been decided to hold these meetings annually in Melbourne. In looking back through the values of IPWEA, I am very pleased to say that the time this group of people spent together epitomised the IPWEA values and made me very proud to be the National President. The two values that I thought were very evident were Respect and Passion. Respect – I honestly thought that the tough issues were dealt with respect and provided
a good path for us to move forward, and provided an opportunity where people could express their views and thoughts without fear or favour. Passion – There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the people involved in this joint meeting are passionate about IPWEA and what they do, and were doing it for all the right reasons. The commitment of these individuals could not be questioned and that was something that really excited me. The challenge, as I see it, is to harness all the passion from around the country and for this group to take ownership of the discussion and agreements, and follow through on the promises (which co-incidentally happens to also be one of our values – Ownership). The meeting discussed a number of topics which generally focussed around communication and IT. Like any organisation, good open communication is a key to long term success and I believe the outcomes of this meeting, and the actions agreed to, will place us in a very good position for the long term. Furthermore, I would like to particularly thank Suzanna Barnes-Gillard, Michael Kahler, Mark Turner, John Roydhouse, Greg Moran, Anne Gibbs, David Sutcliffe, Jane Gascoigne, Angelo Catinari, John Ambrose, Anthony Vuleta, Ross Vincent, Ross Moody and Chris Champion for giving up their valuable time at this very busy time of year to be part of the inaugural meeting. The success of the meeting was only possible with the invaluable contribution of this fantastic group of people. Let me tell you, with IPWEA in the hands of these people, all goes well for a bright future.
IPWEA Platinum Partner
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IPWEA NATIONAL
CEO’S REPORT
IPWEA CEO, CHRIS CHAMPION
A NEW WORLD OF PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING FOR PUBLIC WORKS PROFESSIONALS
The Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (IPWEA) has launched a new ‘Communities of Practice’ website completely based on a professional (social) networking platform. The site enables professional networking across a range of areas including Asset Management, Fleet Management, Climate Change, Parks Management, and Road Safety. Each theme has its own ‘Community of Practice’ made up of people with an interest in that topic, contacts, a discussion forum, library, and events section. Another feature of the site is ‘Ask Your Mates Open Forum’ where more general questions might be asked related to IPWEA’s areas of concern. IPWEA has approximately 10,000 subscribers across the 5 new Communities of Practice and is already getting strong participation in the discussion forums. IPWEA is encouraging an open website where anyone can create a new web account and join its Communities. However, it then restricts some features as Member Only benefits. This broadens the audience of IPWEA’s reach but still retains benefits for members. What can you do on the IPWEA new Communities of Practice? • Find your colleagues and start a conversation; • Leverage the experiences of your colleagues; and • Share what’s working for you - the ideas and resources you use. A professional (social) networking platform In May 2011, IPWEA launched our seemingly innocuous new website but behind its modest facade lay some of the most powerful professional networking platform available to professional associations ... anywhere.
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The site enables full professional networking, sharing and collaboration. Members and registered users are either automatically part of the general Ask Your Mates Open Forum, or can self-subscribe to one of five Communities of Practice. Users can update their online Profiles and contact details in real-time straight into the IPWEA database. But being mindful of the fears and reservations around online social networking, IPWEA decided on a carefully phased approach. Initially all the “social” elements were turned off at the launch of the website allowing a six month familiarisation period for members and visitors, and to iron out kinks with the website. Behind the scenes, our international team was carefully implementing the new professional networking platform. It was important to get privacy and other considerations right. A Beta Test Group of 50 members and staff was set up to help trial the implementation. A fair bit of time was spent tweaking the site to make it user friendly. Go live! On 5th December 2011, IPWEA transferred the existing “Ask Your Mates” email forum to the new platform and opened up our 5 new Communities of Practice. Each Community of Practice comprises a micro-website, a community of members, its own online discussion forum, a searchable library and events associated with the Community. Community members can upload files, videos and other files into the library. It’s early days still, but the new Communities are going very strong. There is almost too much engagement! The platform used is provided with many reports to also benchmark our progress and growth. The international nature of the implementation team shows just what is possible
in today’s globalized world. The Higher Logic team is headquartered in Washington and, at times, IPWEA was also working with software developers in India. IPWEA’s national office is based out of Sydney. Its design consultants are in Adelaide and AMS service provider based in Melbourne. IPWEA’s contract Community Manager who helped with the beta testing and launch works from Toronto, Canada. It seemed that someone was working on IPWEA’s implementation 24 hours a day – and it worked and came together relatively smoothly. A solid foundation of integrated business systems The IPWEA website and IT strategy has been to build a solid foundation of integrated business systems. This has taken some time to develop and implement but is now showing great benefits. The launch of the new website was also undertaken in parallel with consolidating 5 individual State membership databases, and the many event and other databases laying around in spreadsheets, into one single national association management system. The real strength of our website and communities is that it is now very heavily populated with user generated live content. Our homepage and website is loaded with live current discussions, practical solutions to problems, latest file uploads, news blogs, industry news feeds, and upcoming events. IPWEA has just received advice that we have won the Higher Logic’s annual Best Website of the Year Award from amongst its 320 (mainly USA) clients! IPWEA is also about to launch its branded Mobile App which is also integrated and fed from the website. Watch this space for more developments! For more information, visit our new website and communities at www.ipwea.org. au, or contact admin@ipwea.org.au.
COMING EVENTS Event
GET STARTED ON YOUR IPWEA NETWORKING TODAY! Here’s how: 1. Login at www.ipwea.org.au, using your IPWEA username and password. Don’t know it? Contact admin@ipwea.org.au for assistance. If you don’t have an IPWEA web account, Create an Account at www.ipwea.org.au/CreateWebAccount. 2. Complete your profile at www.ipwea.org.au/MyProfile. Community members will want to know about you. A picture is particularly important as it provides a visual cue that there is someone “real” behind the name. a. Edit/update your contact information as needed. b. Complete additional fields and upload a photo as desired. (The more you share, the better the Community can work for you!) 3. Join a Community of Practice. You need to join a Community before you can subscribe to that Community’s Discussion Forum. a. To join to a Community of Practice, log in and go to your Profile (top right corner of website or http://www.ipwea.org.au/MyProfile) b. Then “Edit your Areas of Interest to Join a Community of Practice” (under the My Setting’s heading in your Profile). This will automatically also subscribe you to the daily email digest for the discussion forum. 4. Build your contact list. For IPWEA Members only, go to www.ipwea.org.au/ FindaMember. Creating a contact list helps you identify relationships and build searchable networks. Find three colleagues and request to add them to your contact list! 5. Edit your Email Discussion Subscriptions. Go to http://www.ipwea.org.au/ MySubscriptions to edit how you receive your email notifications. Your choices are: a. Real-Time: Receive discussion updates as they happen, one email for each posting b. Digest: Receive a daily update including all of the posts from that day (where there are posts) c. Legacy: Plain text format d. No Emails: No email updates of discussion received but remain part of Community e. UnSubscribe: Unsubscribe completely from Discussion & Community. No login access to Community. 6. Post a Message. Go to www.ipwea.org.au/PostaMessage. 7. Search the libraries. Share a resource! a. Under Library > Libraries > Search Library, enter a search term and/or choose from various libraries, file types and tags to develop your search. b. Find something you like? Add it to your favorites and rate it to give feedback to the author. c. Add a document of your own; go to Library > Libraries > Add a New Entry. Further questions? Contact Anna at admin@ipwea.org.au
Date Location Contact
IPWEA EVENTS IPWEA (WA) Division State Conference
March 01 2012
TBA manager@ipwea.asn.au
IPWEA (NSW) Division State Conference
7-9 May 2012
Novotel Coffs Harbour michelle@ipwea.org.au
CivEnEx
16-17 May 2012
Western Sydney Dragway, Eastern Creek www.civenex.com
OTHER EVENTS 17th Triennial IFME World Congress on Municipal Engineering
4-8 June 2012
Helsinki, Finland www.ifme.info
National General Assembly 2012
17-20 June 2012
Canberra
2012 APWA International Public Works Congress & Exhibition
26-29 August 2012
Anaheim Convention Centre, California www.apwa.net
National Local Roads & Transport Congress
14-16 November 2012
Hobart, Tasmania andy.hrast@alga.asn.au
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012 | PWE
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WORKSHOPS
THE UPCOMING IPWEA PLANT AND VEHICLE MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS ARE EXPECTED TO ATTRACT MORE INTEREST THAN USUAL WITH ONE OF THE STRONGEST PROGRAMS TO BE DELIVERED.
MARCH PLANT AND VEHICLE MANAGEMENT WORKSHOPS HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MARCH SERIES New Leading Edge Online Plant & Vehicle Management services The new easy to use web based Light Fleet Selection Model will save the user time and money in light fleet purchases. Decision making is made simple with an ‘apples with apples’ comparison for a range of vehicles that meet your selection criteria. Apart from delivering the lowest cost light fleet, safety and environmental factors can be taken into consideration through weightings that can be adjusted to suit your own requirements. Also available online will be templates to calculate Whole-of-Life-Cost and to undertake tender analysis for plant, vehicles and equipment. New OH&S Harmonisation Laws – what it means to manage plant safety In many cases, this will mean that organisations and their staff will have more onerous obligations in the provision of workplace health and safety than under previous legislation in their state. Making sense of managing plant safety under harmonised safety legislation is an issue for everyone involved in fleet and this will be addressed in a session to be run by Matthew Turner from Plant Assessor. In this session we will review plant safety obligations under model work health and safety legislation and de-mystify the process of building a plant safety management system. How well is your fleet performing? A methodology for conducting a Plant & Vehicle Management Health Check will be addressed in the final session of the day. Delegates will be shown a proven step-by-step audit process that will provide a check against best practice aimed at improved fleet management performance. Leading Edge Hybrid Technology in Plant An insight into hybrid technology in plant, how it works and what are some of the benefits available, now and into the future, will be provided by Komatsu’s National Operator Training Supervisor.
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MARCH 2012 DATES & LOCATIONS Dates
Location
State
Mon12 Mar
Casino RSM Club
NSW
Tue 13 Mar
Brisbane North Lakes Resort Golf Club
QLD
Wed 14 Mar
Rockhampton Leagues Club
QLD
Thu 15 Mar
Sydney Holroyd Centre
NSW
Fri 16 Mar
Dubbo RSL Club
NSW
Mon 26 Mar
Launceston Country Club
TAS
Tue 27 Mar
Melbourne, Manningham Function Centre
VIC
Wed 28 Mar
Adelaide Aust Inst Mgt Hindmarsh
SA
Thu 29 Mar
Perth, Ascot Quays Apartments
WA
Apart from the relevance of their content, these workshops provide an unparalleled networking opportunity for people involved in plant and fleet on a regular basis. Visit www. ipwea.org.au/fleet for further information and online registration. Cost Systems Plus Subscribing Organisation $ 310 (inc GST) per participant Non Subscribing Organisation $ 370 (inc GST) per participant Presenters Ross Moody, IPWEA National Executive Officer is the editor of the IPWEA’s Plant & Vehicle Management Manual and coordinates the Systems Plus program including workshops, training and newsletters. He is a certified trainer with over 30 years experience in local government/public works.
Grant Andrews, Managing Director, Uniqco International Plant & Vehicle Management is a specialist fleet management consultant, an experienced trainer and the main author of the IPWEA Plant & Vehicle Management Manual. Aaron Marsh, National Operator Training Supervisor, Komatsu Australia has been appointed to coordinate and supervise the training related aspects of Komatsu’s construction-size earthmoving equipment range. He is a certified trainer, with six years experience at Komatsu and 11 years in the military civil construction and training environment. Matthew Turner, Director Plant Assessor is responsible for general management at Plant Assessor, an advanced plant safety management tool, used extensively across Australia and New Zealand by Government, Construction and the Equipment Supply Chain.
INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC WORKS CONFERENCE • A focus on infrastructure management
• For public works professionals • Over 500 delegates expected • Only held every 2 years • Unparalleled networking opportunity
• Major trade exhibition • 6 paper streams over 3 days • Technical tours To register your interest, or make enquiries about sponsorship or exhibition space, contact: Ross Moody: 0417955394 email: rmoody@ipwea.org.au web: www.ipwea.org.au/darwin2013
FEATURE
QUEENSLAND INITIATIVE TO BECOME ‘SMART ENGINEERING STATE’ An engineering expert has been appointed by the Queensland Government to drive its initiative to make state a world centre of engineering excellence. Internationally recognised materials engineer, Graham Schaffer, has accepted the position as Special Advisor for the new Smart Engineering State initiative. Professor Schaffer has been appointed to the position for a period of three months on secondment from his substantive role as Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture & Information Technology at The University of Queensland. His role as Special Advisor will be to develop a vision and a plan for positioning Queensland as a Smart Engineering State, in consultation with the minerals, energy, services, education and research communities. Early in 2012, he will seek to meet with stakeholders and industry representatives to discuss ideas and perspectives on positioning Queensland as a Smart Engineering State. At the end of Professor Schaffer’s appointment, a series of recommendations will be provided to Government, via the Smart State Council chaired by Queensland Chief Scientist, Dr Geoff Garrett. Premier Anna Bligh said she believed the time was right for Queensland to seek to grow its reputation as a world centre of engineering excellence. “If we build it they will come,” Ms Bligh said. “Capturing the benefits of the minerals
and energy-driven boom will require access to high quality engineers and engineering solutions. “This in turn will require investment in enhancing Queensland as a leader in innovation in engineering and greater collaboration between the engineering industry, engineering researchers and engineering educators. “I have long held the view that the 21st Century will be defined as the Asia Pacific Century,” Ms Bligh said. “The opportunities this presents for Queensland’s industries, particularly the resources sector, will be of critical importance, not just for the future growth and prosperity of our own economy, but for the developing world. “Queensland’s natural resources have the potential to help lift millions of people in countries like China and India out of poverty. “The challenge for government, however, is to ensure Queensland maximises this opportunity and moves beyond the stark, inescapable truth that our finite mineral and energy resources can only ever be developed once. “If Queensland is to continue growing as the Smart State, we need to continue developing our human capital. The Asia Pacific Century will need our intellectual property and technical capability in fields like high-end engineering and mining services just as much as our physical resources.”
“The opportunities this presents for Queensland’s industries, particularly the resources sector, will be of critical importance, not just for the future growth and prosperity of our own economy, but for the developing world. 8 PWE | FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012
QUEENSLAND PREMIER, ANNA BLIGH, BELIEVES THE STATE SHOULD BE PUSHING TO ENHANCE ITS REPUTATION AS A CENTRE OF ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE.
Above: Professor Graham Schaffer Top: Premier Anna Bligh
#29558
ing in Queensland
Rec
FEATURE
VICTORIAN COUNCILS, THE DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND THE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AUTHORITY HAVE COME UNDER FIRE FROM THE STATE’S AUDITOR GENERAL FOR NOT EFFECTIVELY MANAGING CONTAMINATED SITES.
VIC COUNCILS AND GOVERNMENT TARGETED OVER CONTAMINATED SITES The sites are defined for the purposes of the report as land and/or groundwater where chemical and metal concentrations exceeded levels specified in regulations – it is estimated there were about 10,000 of them in Victoria. The report by the Auditor General, Des Pearson, said the councils, the department and the EPA could not demonstrate they were reducing to acceptable levels potentially significant risks to human health and the environment. Mr Pearson said this was largely attributable to “significant gaps” in a complex regulatory framework that had evolved to deal with contaminated sites. He said the framework’s regulatory instruments, established and updated over a 20-year period, had evolved separately and had been implemented in an ad hoc way by the department and the EPA. Mr Pearson said many of the gaps in the framework had been known by the Department and the EPA since 2000 and had affected its operation. The gaps related primarily to the coverage of the regulatory framework and the lack of requirement to report contaminated sites to regulatory agencies, even if health and environment risks were known. He said measures to address the gaps only commenced in late 2010.
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The Auditor General said the gaps in the regulatory framework had led, in many cases, to a lack of accountability and inaction. He said councils had contributed to the poor outcomes through a “lack of rigour” in applying their own internal systems and processes to manage risks associated with developing and managing contaminated sites. Mr Pearson said about 80% of contaminated site issues were being dealt with by councils as planning and responsible authorities, but the councils he audited did not have the technical capabilities to manage the complex issues associated with the sites. The councils relied heavily on legal advice to address the gaps in their technical capability – they sought the advice to minimise the risk of an incorrect decision and to minimise their potential liability in relation to contaminated and potentially contaminated sites. Mr Pearson said he’d been told by councils that the cost of assessing and cleaning up sites was more than available in their budgets and the lack of funding was an impediment to managing risk at contaminated sites. He said risk management was fundamental to effective public sector administration. For management of potentially contaminated and contaminated sites, key inputs included
knowing the location of the sites, whether they were contaminated, the extent and type of contamination and its potential impact. Mr Pearson said there was no systematic approach within the councils audited, the EPA and across the state public sector to identify and assess risks. He said risk management activities were limited and did not take a state-wide perspective. The Auditor General said a lack of information about contamination across Victoria meant risk management activities were not adequately informed. There was no assurance the current regulatory approach was appropriate to manage risk associated with site contamination. His recommendations included that councils: • develop systems to capture ongoing site conditions to inform their compliance monitoring activities around the development, management and clean-up of contaminated sites; and • develop compliance monitoring programs and enforcement processes consistent with better practice and perform them on a routine basis. The Auditor General’s full report and recommendations can be at the VAGO website.