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OPERATIONS IN ACTIONAn update on the latest initiatives, innovations and operational excellence in the field

It takes a village... an update on the Oxley Creek Sewage Treatment Plant upgradeBy Olivia Newman, Program Director Treatment Plants

They say it takes a village to raise a child, well this child (Oxley Creek Sewage Treatment Plant – Stages 1-4 Upgrade and Flood Resilience Project) has taken not only the village, but the whole state, to develop into adulthood.

ACCOUNTABILITY See it • Own it • Solve it

But first, here’s how it all came about...

The two projects were initiated as a result of the 2011 floods, which devastated the Oxley Creek Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and made it inoperable for several months, requiring an investment of $25.65million to resume operation. In order to minimise any future risk, the business took the brave decision to invest in a flood resilience and recovery program, which resulted in the following two projects:

• Oxley Creek STP – Stages 1-4 – Flood RecoveryReplacement of assets damaged as a result of the 2011 flood, to bring stages 1-4 of the Oxley Creek STP back on-line and operational.

• Oxley Creek STP – Flood Resilience ProjectThe raising of critical assets above the 2011 flood line, including the UV switchboard, bio-solids switchboards, blowers, and high voltage switchboard.

This combined package of works totalling $38 million has been delivered with design and construction partner Monadelphous, and design partner Cardno.

Both projects are nearing completion, with the Stages 1-4 Upgrade achieving practical completion on Sunday 27 March (yes, Easter – the commitment of the team!) and the Flood Resilience Project due to be complete in early July.

BUILDING THE BLUE

DELIVER VALUE Define it • Create it • Deliver it

Bernie Fiteni using the iForm app in the field.

Challenges

Some of the challenges faced by the project team include:• Working in a ’brown field’ site. Although Stages 1-4 was a design and

construct project, restrictions around ‘like for like’ replacements presented a number of challenges, particularly when, due to all the flood damage, it felt like you were walking around a war zone, waiting for the next land mine to go off. The team was faced with additional scope resulting from assets that were not highlighted for replacement, huge ground voids around the STP’s final settling tanks (more aptly named ‘Little Beirut’), and the cutting of an existing pipe network by another contractor.

• Constructing major plant assets in an operational plant. Raising the assets required the plant (or critical components of the plant) to be offline for a period of time. As you can appreciate, by virtue of nature the plant needs to continue to function. The project team, along with the plant operators and Monadelphous, developed detailed shut plans, considering all risks and contingency plans to implement the shuts.

The journey to this point has been challenging to say the least, but the ‘village’ has tackled every challenge, risk and issue in a professional and collaborative manner, resulting in a project that will become a legacy within QUU for many years to come.

The flooding at Oxley Creek STP in 2011.

The identification of ‘Little Beirut’ last year.

PAGE 11 URBANPEOPLE

OPERATIONS IN ACTIONAn update on the latest initiatives, innovations and operational excellence in the field

It takes a village... an update on the Oxley Creek Sewage Treatment Plant upgrade continued...

Highlights

Along with the challenges come highlights, and this project has shone brightly in this space. The projects required the input and collaboration of a number of stakeholders in the business, including the Treatment and Environment Management, Planning, Maintenance and Infrastructure Delivery teams – a full Operations effort!

At times there were animated conversations, particularly around scope requirements and nice-to-haves, but through it all the Project Manager, Lachlan Green, has been able to act as the ‘Village King’, managing expectations and ensuring the outcomes were best for QUU.

Another project highlight was the collaborative relationship formed with Monadelphous and their sub-contractors on-site, particularly around safety management and culture. During the delivery of the projects, a number of incidents occurred that identified some safety deficiencies. As a result of

the collaborative investigation process, a number of initiatives have been developed and implemented on-site. Recent observations have seen a marked improvement of the safety culture, and the contractor is looking to implement these initiatives more broadly within their business. Monadelphous and their key sub-contractor are now also working with QUU to develop a safety dashboard to identify lead indicators and proactive activities. This is an excellent example of how the Infrastructure Delivery Team is working towards a collaborative approach to safety excellence with our contractors.

These are just a few examples of the challenges and success stories that the project team have encountered – to list them all would produce a best-seller – but I think it highlights the adversity they encountered on a regular basis, and their resilience and professionalism to keep pushing through to get to where we are today.

The village

Since initiation, the two projects have had a number of project team members and it would be remiss of me to only acknowledge the current team, as the contribution of those past team members provided the strong foundation for success.

The following team members were recently rewarded for their fantastic work with an URBANACHIEVER Award:

Infrastructure DeliveryOlivia Newman, Program DirectorLachlan Green, Project Manager/Contract ManagerJonathan Farrell, Program EngineerAllan Quach, Project EngineerRod Zorn, Commissioning EngineerLinda Nguyen, Project Support OfficerThomas Mannhardt, Contract ManagerHarald Kemmetmuller, Principal EngineerSteve Bourke, Principal EngineerJohn Fearon, Quality InspectorSenthi Nathan, Former Project ManagerGavin Flood, Former Principal Engineer Gerard Anderson, Former Program Engineer

Treatment and Environmental ManagementBill Collie, Service Delivery LeaderDavid Lobegeiger, Technical SpecialistWakib Khan, Process EngineerJames Geissler, Senior Treatment Plant OperatorZane Tomlins, Manager Process Control Efficiency

MaintenanceIan Forse, Planner MechanicalDanny Perazzolo, Lead Control System Engineer

PlanningDaniel Starrenburg, Planning Engineer

BUILDING THE BLUE

Wet Commissioning (testing and initial operation with clean water) at the Oxley STP during January-February 2016.

Our new flood resilient switchboard room.

An aerial photo of stages 1 and 2 last year