Sydney Desalination Project

Project Overview

Sydney Water called competitive tenders for the design and construction of the Desalination Plant at Kurnell and engaged Blue Water Joint Venture (John Holland and Veolia Water) under a lump sum contract. This included twin tunnels 2.4km long out to sea, and the construction of two plants each capable of producing 125 megalitres of drinking water per day.

Sydney Water engaged the Water Delivery Alliance (Bovis Lend Lease, McConnell Dowell and KBR) for the design and construction of the 18km pipeline from Kurnell to Erskineville.

A wind farm located near Canberra was also included in this program of works which was completed within its budget of $1.9 billion.

TBH’s Role

Sydney Water engaged TBH for several key roles in its program management office. After initially developing the project management plan and reporting systems, TBH took responsibility for two key roles across the program of works. These included:

Time management

• Reviewing of master programs submitted by Blue Water
• Monthly site inspections of the plant and the pipeline projects in progress
• Detailed reporting of status, and of areas behind schedule
• Participation in the preparation of Sydney Water’s monthly report
• Review of claims for extension of time
• Strategic assessment of progress, and forecasting likely outcome dates
• Risk assessment of the potential for the plant to be completed before the pipeline

Cost Management

• Implementation of Primavera P6 as the baseline for the cost plan
• Regular tracking of all transactions and their capture in P6
• Reporting on cashflows and earned value
• Exception reporting
• Participation in the preparation of Sydney Water’s monthly report

To find out more about TBH’s Planning & Scheduling and Cost Management experience, please visit the Planning & Scheduling or Cost Management page.