Tunnelling and Trenchless Technology specialist Geoff Brewster, who has been at the forefront of the development of the microtunnelling and pipe jacking industry in Australia, has recently joined cost engineering firm Project Support to head up their specialist tunnelling and microtunnelling division.
Project Support provide specialist advice on cost, risk, constructability and project delivery for infrastructure projects across Australia, and their specialist engineers have worked on a range of trenchless and tunnelling projects in the water and wastewater, road, rail and public transport sectors.
Mr Brewster said providing effective advice on constructability issues and risk management helps to achieve maximum whole-of-project value and certainty.
“Selecting the most appropriate construction methodology based on all available data will have a significant impact on the time and cost of construction, and to be the most effective, it needs to start early in the design stage,” Mr Brewster said.
“The combination of estimating skills, temporary works solutions and cross-discipline construction experience that Project Support brings to a project enables us to provide costed constructability input and review at all stages of the design and construction process.
“Providing this input at the options selection phase of the project should ensure that constructability is considered in the design of the project from a very early stage.
“In the case of tunnelling projects, constructability considerations are paramount to maximising value by reducing time and cost impacts.”
Mr Brewster is recognised as a leader in the field, with more than 35 years experience on tunnelling projects spanning Australia, Chile, Auckland
and Singapore.
“As a qualified geotechnical engineer, my role is to interpret geological data to develop construction methodologies and cost estimates for all types of tunnels and quarries,” Mr Brewster said.
“Clearly as a starting point good geotechnical data is the key to efficiency on tunnelling projects, but a project also requires on-going and continuous review of costs and risks through all phases of project delivery.
“Having hands-on experience both as specialist practitioners and estimators of major tunnels, microtunnelling, pipe jacking and hard rock quarries, we are able to provide this review and advice on construction processes being used in these specialist areas.
“This in turn provides significant added value, with the ability to advise clients on how to make improvements to increase yield and efficiency, as well as contractual claims in these areas.”
Major clients of Project Support include BHP, Queensland Rail, SA Water, Gladstone Port Authority, Brisbane Airport Authority and Queensland Urban Utilities.