QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

DRIVING ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE When the Thiess Bros opened their doors for business, they quickly earned a reputation for engineering excellence and innovation in the most challenging of conditions, eventually becoming a driving force in Queensland’s development. Nearly 80 years later, the same passion to overcome seemingly unsurmountable construction challenges lives on. Today, Thiess continues to contribute to Queensland’s development, delivering landmark infrastructure and providing services that are helping creating a brighter and sustainable future.

BUILDING VITAL INFRASTRUCTURE Australia’s largest road project, the $4.8 billion Airport Link Project is an engineering marvel and will be a vital piece of infrastructure for years to come. The Thiess John Holland Joint Venture is constructing Airport Link on behalf of the Queensland Government. In total, this complex project involves the delivery of 25 bridges, 15 kilometres of tunnels and ramps, and more than seven kilometres of new roads through, above and below the densely populated inner-city and northern suburbs of Brisbane. The massive undertaking has required purpose-built tunnel boring machines – the likes of which have not been seen before in Australia – high levels of precision in engineering design and innovative construction methodologies. As an example, the team successfully undertook a ‘jacked box’ operation during which two purpose-built concrete boxes, the width of a rugby field, were pushed beneath one of Queensland’s busiest railway lines. The largest of its type to be undertaken in Australia, this innovative tunnelling method minimised disruptions to approximately 13,500 train trips on the north coast railway line. The latest independent traffic study on the project confirms that motorists, travelling from the city to the airport, will benefit from reduced traffic congestion and greater certainty, saving up to 20 minutes’ travel time in peak hour on some journeys and reducing travel times by as much as 88 per cent. THROUGH FRESH EYES Thiess’ mine planning and engineering excellence is helping to secure the State’s electricity future and support resources development. Thiess was engaged by Stanwell Corporation to operate Meandu Mine in Queensland’s south-east and supply coal to the nearby Tarong power stations. Together with the client, Thiess was able to review and analyse Meandu’s remaining reserves to allow the mine to operate for another 15 years rather than transfer mining to another site.

Two years of study, a flexible approach to equipment applications and mining concepts, thousands of metres of additional exploratory drilling and extensive mine planning is enabling Meandu to continue operations and reliably supply 5 million tonnes of coal annually to one of South East Queensland’s largest power stations. In the same pioneering spirit of the Thiess brothers, the company is working with Australia’s largest resource developers to help develop Queensland’s coal seam gas industry. Thiess is delivering vital infrastructure for the landmark QCLNG project in Queensland, near the centres of Dalby and Chinchilla in the Surat Basin. SMALLER FOOTPRINT; BIGGER FUTURE Thiess’ key environmental objective at the Gorgon Project in Western Australia is to protect the conservation and biodiversity values of Barrow Island. Barrow Island is home to 2,600 species of plants and animals, including many that are absent from mainland Australia. Thiess has put in place strict controls to achieve this, including a quarantine management plan, workforce education, progressive rehabilitation and carefully pre-planned work to maintain the ecosystem and minimise our impact. While Thiess may focus on making as little environmental impact as possible on its projects, the remediation team at Thiess Services has made a big impact of a different kind. The team has completed a $405 million remediation project to remove and treat river sediment contaminated by the former Newcastle Steelworks activities. The remediation team permanently removed 800,000 cubic metres of contaminated sediment and work produced no adverse effects as shown by 200,000 environmental measurements. The Hunter River Remediation Project was recognised with an Environmental Best Practice Award from the United Nations Association of Australia.

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