The Cobar Industrial Estate (Cobar IEU), situated on the town’s north-east, comprises a relatively level topography. The industrial estate covers approximately 65ha and is predominantly made up of housing, large working facilities, yards, and road infrastructure.
A lack of underground drainage caused the existing road surface to fail. Existing services included immovable overhead power lines, underground NBN cabling and polyethylene (PE) water mains. The Cobar Shire Council identified several existing drainage and pavement issues within the estate.
The council engaged Orion to project-manage the works with the aim to reduce construction costs and expedite the solution. Orion’s design team reviewed the existing drawings. It deemed the proposed design impractical and unachievable, so Orion was also engaged to prepare a civil engineering ‘detailed drawing’ to enhance Cobar IE’s road network. The objective was to upgrade the estate to a standard suitable for A-double and B-triple road trains while incorporating stormwater infrastructure solutions to address local flooding issues.
Orion was engaged to manage construction works, provide a feasible construction design and act on behalf of the Cobar Shire Council.
Project management works included:
- Acting alongside, and in the best interest of, Cobar Shire Council to facilitate the Cobar IEU.
- Progressing the project forward linearly, ensuring implementation of key concepts and processes before and during construction.
- Retrieving and reviewing information from other consultants.
- Preparing a Bill of Quantities, and ordering required materials.
- Providing relevant tender documentation and managing tender processes with contractors.
- Ensuring completion of pre-commencement processes.
- Obtaining relevant security and insurance from the contractor as per the Contract.
- Assessing the contractor’s program, time extensions, RFIs, variations and monthly progress claims, and issuing appropriate directions, certificates, and letters.
- Conducting fortnightly site inspections to monitor the contractor’s progress against the program.
- Chairing fortnightly meetings.
Design works for road upgrade included:
- Installing kerb, channels and drainage to reduce localised ponding and flooding during minor rainfall events.
- Upgrading the existing failed roads to a grade and width that accommodates oversized vehicles, ensuring they can traverse the industrial estate without damaging road surfaces, road-related infrastructure (e.g. signage), or vehicles.
Several challenges arose during project management, including:
- Cobar’s remote location meant infrequent site inspections, the high expense of material deliveries, and the town’s lack of compliance standards.
- The Cobar Shire Council had strict construction works budget restrictions, material costs were heavily scrutinised, and Stage 1 construction expedition was required for funding access.
- Stockpiled materials ordered from the original rejected design had to be implemented where possible.
- Long material delivery lead times to the site.
- The need to utilise existing Vinidex PP piping.
- Managing consultation with geotechnical engineers from other cities.
- Protecting existing overhead power lines and power poles.
- Impractical original designs provided by the Council risked going over scope.
- A lack of key design information, including legal access requirements for each lot, no existing compliance framework, no flooding information on the catchment plan, and a lack of existing survey data.
- Inability to relocate or unground existing services.
- Working around Cobar IE’s flat topography and shallow, weathered rock material for sufficient pipe-grade maintenance.
- A feasible horizontal alignment was required for a heavy vehicle turn path.
Orion led with a ‘do it once, do it right’ approach. Although this presented more upfront costs and initial delays to construction, we’re confident we’ll recover this time and cost during our proposed construction program. Orion’s main approach was to provide a feasible design and progress the project by retrieving the required information and ordering materials to minimise future delays.
We overcame the many challenges by:
- Maintaining direct and clear communication with the council.
- Being responsive and providing timely solutions.
- Offering pragmatic and straightforward problem-solving.
- Leveraging our experience to negate potential delays and make accurate, cost-effective, practical assumptions.
- Utilising existing LIDAR information and our expertise with similar jobs to determine a feasible catchment and produce a safe, practical, efficient drainage network.
- Conducting a hydrology assessment to determine approximate stormwater flows during flood events.
- Holistically designing the drainage network to capture stormwater flow accurately, size the required pipe network, and detect any service clashes.
- Basing Cobar IEU’s compliance framework on Penrith City Council’s standards.
- Implementing twin and triple cell pipe layouts to maintain the cover requirement and sufficient pipe grading.
- Utilising clash-detection software to prevent construction issues.
As the ongoing superintendent, Orion will lead the project as the principal’s representative, reviewing the contractor’s Quality Assurance (QA) and Project Management System (PMS) to ensure contract compliance, plus time extensions, RFIs, variations and monthly progress claimsC.
With the project’s challenges in mind, Orion provided significant value to the client, including:
- Maintaining a high level of clarity so Council can assess, and provide direction.
- Instilling confidence in the initial cost estimates and identifying risk and early cost-benefit outcomes for the proposed upgrade works for the council’s budgeting purposes.
- Led the project to progress within budget, and cost savings.
- Provided a practical, cost-effective design that utilised existing materials and saved time and cost.
- Kept the contractor, council and public informed.
- Organised meetings with key stakeholders to avoid future issues and mitigate risk.
Project Management, Design, & Principles Representative