Eyes on Australia

MAJOR ITALIAN CONTRACTOR EYES AUSTRALIAN PROJECTS

SALINI IMPREGILO’S MARCO ASSORATI SAT DOWN WITH ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE TO DISCUSS HIS VIEWS ON RISK SHARING, MODERN SPECIFICATIONS AND THE NEED FOR ADAPTABLE INFRASTRUCTURE AS THE INTERNATIONAL CONSTRUCTION GIANT INCREASES ITS INVOLVEMENT IN AUSTRALIA’S MAJOR PROJECTS.

Some of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects share a common international contractor.

The $8.3 billion Sydney Metro Northwest, $1.86 billion Forrestfield-Airport Link and $5.1 billion Snowy 2.0, for example, are changing the transport and energy infrastructure landscape in New South Wales and Western Australia.

While relatively new to Australia, Salini Impregilo is at the heart of these projects. In Snowy 2.0, the company is championing Australia’s transition to renewable energy after winning the contract as a member of the Future Generation joint venture. Crews will build the biggest hydroelectric power station in Australia .

Sydney Metro Northwest now forms a rapid transit link to the northwest suburbs of Sydney, a project critical to helping improve liveability by providing additional transport links. Likewise, the Forrestfield-Airport Link will help connectivity from Perth’s eastern suburbs to the CBD.

Salini Impregilo’s latest work in Australia started with parts of the Sydney Metro Northwest in 2014, which is now complete. The company was tasked with building the skytrain bridge and 4.6-kilometre viaduct for the project.

In 1906, two companies, Girora and Lodigani, were created in Italy. The group today is the product of a series of mergers throughout the last century, with at least four companies coming together before Salini Impregilo was founded in 2014.

Salini Impregilo Executive Director for Australia and Oceania Marco Assorati spoke at the 2019 World Engineering Convention.

Salini Impregilo has been involved in some of the world’s largest infrastructure projects, namely a section of the Brenner Base Tunnel from Austria to Italy, which on completion will be the longest underground rail connection in the world.

It is also building a section of the Grand Paris Express which includes the construction of two metro lines: Line 16 north of Paris and Line 14 to the south connecting to Orly Airport.

Since the Sydney Metro Northwest, Salini Impregilo has slowly been increasing its construction footprint in Australia, gaining contracts for the Forrestfield Airport Link and Snowy 2.0.

Marco Assorati, Salini Impregilo’s Executive Director for Australia and Oceania, presented at the 2019 World Engineering Convention in Melbourne. He expressed his view for Australia to adopt adaptable infrastructure projects.

In the opening session of the convention, Mr. Assorati stated that as an industry, construction contractors have to ensure projects they plan, design, deliver, operate and maintain are changeable for the future.

Adaptability, he noted, involves making the best use of space and resourses already available.

“It’s all about incorporating innovation that we have been exposed to by other markets. We are looking at how we can introduce these innovations in Australia in the framework of Australian projects,” he said.

In speaking to Roads and Infrastructure at the convention, Mr. Assorati expressed his desire to better connect with the Australian construction market to introduce innovative practices.

Creating quality relationships and partnerships with Australian companies is one project aspect Mr. Assorati regards highly, as he looks to grow Salini Impregilo’s presence in Australia.

“It is critical for us to understand the local rules of the game and also to spread our footprint in a more local fashion,” he said.

“For sure there is a very impressive infrastructure pipeline for the next 10-15 years, so it is a marketplace where we want to be.”

For the Forrestfield Airport Link in Western Australia, Salini Impregilo is working with NRW Holdings, a Perth-based construction services company.

The project involves the construction of 18-kilometre twin tunnels and three

stations to connect the eastern suburbs of Perth to the airport as well as the CBD. Two specifically designed tunnel boring machines are now being used for the project.

From his experience on projects like this in Australia, Mr. Assorati said the country has differing technologies and contract designs which are important elements for international companies to understand.

He said for example in Europe, the standards for specifying how structural design should be constructed, known as Eurocodes, can improve quality, efficiency and costs.

Mr. Assorati also believes changes to the way risk sharing is distributed on projects will allow for the increased use of new materials and technologies to improve the quality of projects.

“In some cases, we find that the proposal of different standards clashes with the strict requirements adopted as a point of reference in Australian projects,” Mr. Assorati said.

“Risk sharing is more about understanding, together with clients, who is in the best position to bear that risk and who can best understand and manage the risk. It is about having conversations and collaboration.”

One example of positive risk sharing, Mr. Assorati explained, was the Lake Mead Intake Hydraulic Tunnel completed by Salini Impregilo in 2016. The tunnel was constructed underneath the largest artificial lake in the United States.

The project was created to mitigate the effects of a long drought in the Colorado River Basin by guaranteeing the supply of water to residents of Las Vegas.

The build created a shaft on the shore of the lake that descends 200 metres to the mouth of the tunnel.

The water then flows through a series of tunnels and shafts for 4600 metres before being pumped into a treatment plant and

Salini Impregilo was tasked with building the skytrain bridge and 4.6-kilometre viaduct for the Sydney Metro Northwest.

transferred to the city.

Theoretical water pressure above the heads of the workers in the tunnel boring machine was up to 15 bars compared to the usual one to three bars.

“To approach such a complex project, an innovative shared risk approach was implemented to ensure the full commitment of all parties, to reduce the contingencies in the contractor’s costs and owner’s budget, as well as to reduce the risk of uncertainties,” Mr. Assorati said.

Entering into a risk shared model guaranteed both parties were committed to the outcome.

The approach would later win a number of awards, including the American Civil Society of Engineers Awards in 2016 for Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement.

“Effective risk sharing is assured when there are mechanisms in place allowing the right party to manage those. If the right party manages the risk, the project is more efficient,” Mr. Assorati said.

With developments in recycled resources and construction technology, there are many new products contractors can implement on infrastructure projects.

A lack of proven quality means products without regulation will often not be considered by asset owners due to the risks involved.

“First there must be more flexibility in the technical specifications for road construction. Every state has its own rules, and sometimes there isn’t enough flexibility to introduce innovation,” he said.

Mr. Assorati said effective risk sharing needs to become commonplace in Australia to enable development in product and practice to take place.

This view has been reflected by the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association, which worked for much of 2019 to harmonise technical specifications for asphalt testing across the country.

The increase in demand to use recycled resources was reflected in the World Engineers Convention’s theme, ‘Engineering a Sustainable World: the next 100 years’. The convention explored ideas such as environmental sustainability and the creation of infrastructure in the face of population growth.

Mr. Assorati explained to Roads and Infrastructure that when creating new infrastructure today, asset owners must think about how each asset may be adapted for future use as a result of the effects of urbanisation.

“Where you see a road, we may see a railway in the next 15 years. Where we see a carpark, we may see a drone park. There is a revolution coming very fast and we need to leave enough space for things to be changed in the future,” he said.

In keeping with industry trends, sustainability is a major goal for Salini Impregilo in all of its projects.

The Sydney Metro Northwest, completed by the joint venture in early 2019, received an excellent Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia rating.

Up to 96 per cent of non-contaminated construction waste was recycled across the project, contributing to the project’s high performance.

The rating reflected Salini Impregilo’s delivery of concrete on the project by recycling water and materials to reduce the environmental impacts. This rating is an achievement the company hopes to replicate on the Forrestfield Airport Link project.

“We have applied the same principles with the concrete segments lining the tunnels in Western Australia. It is just about introducing innovative ideas to get there,” Mr. Assorati said.