IPWEAQ UPDATES
AMBASSADOR UPDATE
Clare Ferguson IPWEAQ Ambassador
I was delighted to have been invited to become an IPWEAQ Ambassador and to attend the IPWEAQ Annual Conference in Cairns in October. Since then, I graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) degree, majoring in Civil Engineering, from the University of Southern Queensland in December. Luckily, we had an in-person graduation ceremony unlike many other students over the past two years which was super exciting. I started studying part-time in 2015 and have been able to work in a variety of engineering roles during those seven years to graduate not only with a degree but with a whole lot of experience under my belt. In 2019, I joined the Proterra Group as a Technical Officer and now as a Civil Engineer. Now I’m on the hunt for things to do to fill in the many hours of spare time! Recent Projects I have been working with Goondiwindi Regional Council (GRC) since their flood event in February 2020 to help project manage the reconstruction of their damaged assets. We obtained over $9 million in funding from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority in 2020 to rebuild GRC’s assets to preevent condition. Work on the roads commenced in March 2020 with three full-time work crews engaged to complete more than
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Clare with her partner, David
Clare with her parents
Clare presenting awards at the 2021 Excellence Awards
164 kilometres of restoration work ranging from 50 mm gravel top ups to entire sealed road replacements. Not twelve months later, in March 2021, Goondiwindi experienced its worst flooding in over a decade. Roads which had only recently been restored were damaged again, and others we hadn’t made our way to yet were damaged even more. We collected GoPro footage of every road within the Goondiwindi Shire and prepared several funding submissions based on the road type (gravel or sealed), location (east, middle or west), culverts and other specialty categories. After meeting with the Queensland Reconstruction Authority in the middle of October to review the applications, we pressed the submit button for $61 million of funding shortly after. While waiting patiently for the submissions to be returned, Goondiwindi again experienced severe flooding. Rain from late November 2021 resulted in
widespread flooding lasting for over a month. The most severely impacted area this time around was Inglewood with the town becoming completely cut off for several days. So come December 2021, we had reconstruction work relating to damage from February 2020 well underway, submissions lodged for flooding in March 2021 and now the majority of the shire’s roads underwater… again. Challenges Faced: The steel reinforced concrete pipe supply issues being faced by the whole of Southeast Queensland has changed the way our projects are planned and resourced. Paul Adam, Chair of Concrete Pipe Association Australia (CPAA) presented on IPWEAQ’s Public Works TV (PWTV) in April 2021 on the issue and, although as much as possible is being done to mitigate supply delays, it’s something the industry is going to have to accept for the foreseeable future. Usually, the first step in planning
ENGINEERING FOR PUBLIC WORKS | MARCH 2022
