Council, the Builder – A Successful “DIY” Operation!

Annual Conference

Historical under-investment has led to deterioration in sewerage collection and wastewater treatment systems in Mount Isa, a mining town in Northwest Queensland. Population growth and increasing community and compliance pressure has prompted Mount Isa City Council to embark on a series of improvement programs to achieve compliance and better environmental outcomes.

An extensive and capital intensive upgrade was initially proposed to address poor conditions of existing assets and lack of automation and instrumentation in the existing wastewater treatment plant. However, as a result of the downturn in the resource sector causing financial strain on Council budgets, a “back to the drawing board” scenario was proposed.

Given the required technical and environmental objectives, little could be done to reduce the plant and process required. Therefore, an innovative approach to project delivery was developed.

Council, themselves, proposed to act as a Head Contractor by utilizing their own resources. They managed the suppliers (with technical input from consultants) and local sub-contractors.

As this was a ‘first’, it was decided to trial the scheme with the new inlet works. This not only proved to be very successful, but also achieved massive savings in capital cost. Based on this successful venture, Council decided to proceed with the construction of the tertiary treatment plant. Again, this was also successful and economic. The savings in capital have now allowed Council to bring forward other projects, which were originally planned for future years.

The authors of this paper would like to share their experience, with particular discussion on:

  • Ambivalence of various parties involved
  • Challenges faced in technical and contract management
  • Lessons learnt – what could have been better
  • Suitability of this approach
  • Advantages and disadvantages
  • Capital savings – hard facts
Conference Papers

12.00 Council, The Builder A Successful DIY Operation!.pdf

pdf
1 MB
09 Nov 2017

12.00pm I Ho & A Deshpande.pdf

pdf
2 MB
09 Nov 2017