Another award for the Sydney Metro tunnelling team

In the company of world-class projects from Europe and Asia, the John Holland CPB Ghella (JHCPBG) tunnelling works for the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project have been acknowledged on a global platform, winning the award for the Environment and Sustainability Initiative of the Year at the New Civil Engineer 2019 Tunnelling Festival in London.

Sydney Metro is Australia’s biggest public transport project. JHCPBG is building the 15.5-kilometre long twin railway tunnels between Chatswood and Sydenham and excavating six new metro stations.

The award recognized the successful collaboration of the project team with external stakeholders to adopt sustainable spoil management solutions which included:

• Beneficially reusing 100% of clean tunnelling spoil
• Using barges on Sydney Harbour to reduce traffic congestion in CBD and residential areas
• Embedding circular economy principles in construction management practices to reduce our footprint.

The win comes off the back of the project receiving a “Leading” Infrastructure Sustainability Rating of 100.05 by the Infrastructure and Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA). The highest EVER rating to be awarded to an infrastructure project in Australia and New Zealand.

At the NCE Tunnelling Awards, JHCPBG was also highly commended in the category of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative of the Year for the project’s workforce development and industry participation programs. 

These initiatives include:

• The school-based apprentices and trainee program, which employs 15 trainees from a range of ethnic and Aboriginal backgrounds
• Pre-employment program, which offers the opportunity for unemployed people to gain the necessary skills and training to begin a career in civil construction
• Partnership with Souths Cares which supports Aboriginal high-school students to develop high aspirations and goals for their education and employment. 

The project also maintained a target to ensure the workforce included a minimum of 5 per cent females in non-traditional roles. 

The New Civil Engineer Tunnelling Awards recognize and reward projects, teams and companies doing the most to drive the tunnelling sector forwards.