The Northern Territory Government, through Territory Housing, has engaged Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) as Program Manager for the $647 million Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program.

Territory Housing, part of the Northern Territory Department of Local Government, Housing and Sport, is implementing the program, which is jointly funded by the Northern Territory Government and the Australian Government. PB and Territory Housing have set up a joint Darwin office dedicated to the program.

The program will significantly improve the living conditions and quality of life of Indigenous people in remote communities in the Northern Territory. It is the biggest single program of its kind, and provides funding for new housing (additional and replacement housing), housing renovations, and infrastructure (including serviced allotments).

Click here to view our press release.

May 2008

Global water award win

Queensland’s recently commissioned Bundamba Advanced Water Treatment Plant (AWTP) Stage 1 has been named Water Project of the Year 2008 at the Global Water Awards in London.

The Global Water Awards recognise the most outstanding achievements and innovations in technology development and environmental protection in the water industry.

Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) was general engineering consultant to the project alliance, (made up of the Queensland Coordinator-General, Thiess, and Black & Veatch), providing detailed design and construction verification services on environmental permitting, civil, structural, high-voltage electrical, and building services.

The primary objective of the plant is to provide recycled water for power station and industrial purposes, and reduce demand on the local Wivenhoe–Somerset potable water storage systems.

‘We are delighted to hear that Bundamba AWTP came away with an award. It is truly a great accomplishment when international representatives acknowledge the effort made by the team, especially when there is an incredibly short timeframe to deliver project outcomes,’ said Roger Pattison, PB’s Regional Director for Queensland.

Other award nominees included the Plazxow 11 Treatment Plant in Poland, the Orange Country Groundwater Replenishment Project in California, and the Lake Pleasant Water Treatment Plant in Arizona.

Bundamba AWTP Stage 1 was nominated on the grounds that it was the initial component of the Western Corridor Recycled Water Project, the largest recycled water scheme in the Southern Hemisphere, and fully operational within 10 months.

May 2008

Enviro 08

PB made a significant sponsorship and speaking contribution to Enviro 08 in Melbourne on 5–7 May. This is Australia’s primary conference addressing environmental and sustainability issues.

Since its inception in 2000, Enviro has developed into a platform for promoting change through ideas, and the sharing of knowledge, information and practical resources to help meet the myriad challenges of climate change.

The 2008 conference brought together leaders in government, industry and business, along with water, waste, energy and sustainability practitioners from Australia and overseas.

Day one provided grounding in key issues across the conference themes, followed by more detailed discussions on days two and three. There were entire streams devoted to water and water operators, waste management, resource recovery, energy, facilitating change, sustainable cities and climate change.

PB had four speakers on the conference program including a keynote role on sustainable cities for our Director of Sustainability, Darren Bilsborough, who spoke on green buildings. Bill Proudfoot addressed the conference on carbon management. Dr Sanja Oldridge and Dr Mohand Amghar both delivered poster presentations.

May 2008

Climate change: GHG audit for Tasmania

PB has been engaged by the Tasmanian Government to develop an inventory of the government’s greenhouse gas emissions. Tasmania is the first Australian state to conduct such a whole-of-government audit.

PB will set up an emissions reporting and monitoring system, and recommend emission reduction targets across government. The first phase of the six-month audit is looking at emissions associated with energy consumption, vehicle and air travel, and core government administrative areas, including Parliament House and ministerial offices. The study will also include energy audits of 25 government buildings and consider the use of solar energy.

Arek Sinanian, PB’s National Technical Executive, Climate Change, is leading the audit team.

PB offers a range of climate-change-related services to assist clients with their emission reduction and adaptation strategies, and understanding the implications and risks associated with climate change.

These include energy demand management and renewable energy services, financial services, and carbon accounting services.

April 2008

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Green infrastructure

PB is a foundation member of the Australian Green Infrastructure Council (AGIC).

AGIC is a national industry association to advance sustainability in infrastructure and to establish a sustainability rating scheme for infrastructure projects. PB has been integral in AGIC's development, and is represented on the interim steering committee.

The rating scheme will consider environmental, social and economic elements of roads and tunnels, railways and bridges; airports; ports and marinas; water collection, distribution and treatment infrastructure; distribution grids; and civil engineering headworks of industrial plants.

April 2008

Australian Water Association Awards

On Wednesday 19 March, at the inaugural Awards of the Australian Water Association NSW Division, PB won the Water Research Merit Award for the Doudles Folly Creek Collaborative Research Project.

PB, in conjunction with the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA) and ARCADIS undertook investigations into the surface water – groundwater interactions at the site of a potential potable water supply aquifer system in the Upper Nepean catchment.

The catchment area is important for the Nepean and Avon Dams and is subject to substantial water transfer volumes from the Shoalhaven Scheme through to Warragamba Dam. There are numerous farms surrounding the area which make use of local creeks, springs and bores, so it is vital to ensure that these water supplies remain viable.

The investigations made use of gas and dye-applied tracers during a long-term pumping test, with numerical modelling subsequently used to evaluate groundwater and surface water interconnectivity and ultimately assess borefield feasibility.

This project demonstrated and quantified the importance of fracture flow in the Hawkesbury Sandstone for assessing surface water – groundwater connectivity, and regional groundwater flow. The study emphasised the need to understand the fracture properties of the sandstone rock mass, particularly fracture size, distribution, density and connectivity. This research project and data analysis has been particularly important for the assessment of production bore locations and spacing, and the long-term sustainability of the borefield development.

March 2008

Stateline interview

PB’s Frank Pool spoke at the Queensland Energy Summit in late February 2008, and was also interviewed about energy prices and energy efficiency by ABC TV for their current affairs program Stateline. Click here to view the interview.

Frank Pool is Principal Consultant, Sustainable Energy, based in Wellington. He has extensive experience in design, management and evaluation of sustainable energy policies, programs, and projects (supply-side and demand-side) in developed and developing countries, and spanning nearly all fuel forms, sectors and end-uses.

Frank’s recent work covers hydropower; windpower; district heating, cogeneration/CHP (combined heat and power) and direct use of geothermal energy; biomass and biomethanation; off-grid diesel-wind-photovoltaic hybrid systems; MEPS (minimum energy performance standards) and labelling; transport electrification and biofuels; and energy intensity analysis and modelling.

February 2008

Transport and logistics awards

Dr Mateus Magala, an economist with PB’s Strategic Consulting Group, has won the prestigious Transport and Logistics Achievement of the Year Award for the year 2007. The Award was sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport of Australia (CITLIA) and presented at the Australian Supply Chain & Logistics Awards 2007‏.

The award was in recognition of Mateus’ contribution to the supply chain and logistics industry through joint research with Adrian Sammons, Director of the AustralAsia Trade Route in the Department of the Chief Minister, Northern Territory Government. Mateus and Adrian developed a new theory on how shippers select a port through which they ship their goods to markets where they compete with rivals for competitive advantage.

In July 2007, the research was also internationally recognised with the award of the best paper prize at the Annual Conference of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) held in Athens, Greece.

The research has been widely publicised in Australia and overseas in both academic and industry magazines including the International Journal of Maritime Economics and Logistics (MEL), Port Strategy in Europe, Lloyds List DCN Australia, Australian Freight Logistics, New Zealand Shipping Gazette, and Lloyd’s Shipping Economist. More recently, access to the research was requested by the port of Montreal, Hamburg and DP World.

In January 2008, Mateus was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Australian Naval Institute in recognition of his ongoing research on how to sustain supply chains in a carbon-constrained future.

January 2008

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Finalist in BRW Client Choice Awards

The awards are based on research by Beaton Consulting, and unique in that finalists and winners are chosen directly by clients of the participating firms. This year, over 30,000 individual client responses were received for the awards.

The qualities that client value the most? Efficiency, empathy, responsiveness, and commerciality.

February 2008

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New MD for PB

Jim Mantle is now PB’s MD in Australia–Pacific. Formerly PB’s Director of Operations, Jim replaces Stuart Glenn, who has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of PB International. Click here to view our press release.

January 2008

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