Queensland's best electrical and communications projects

Queensland’s top electrical and communications contractors were recently recognised at the National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) Excellence Awards.

Six companies across nine categories received awards in front of over 600 industry representatives including contractors, educators and government representatives at the showcase event of the electrical and communications industry at the Royal International Convention Centre. The winning projects in 2013 included the electrical, lighting, voice and data communications installations and energy-efficient installations.

The executive director of NECA Queensland, Mick Logan, said the winning companies were chosen because of their commitment to excellence, significant engineering achievements and, most importantly, their ability to integrate many different technologies into the one project.

“The judging panel were privileged to view such high-quality projects and, as always, NECA members have contributed positively to some of the biggest construction jobs in this state including Brisbane City Hall and the Gold Coast University Hospital.”

The winning companies and their projects are listed below:

Commercial - Medium Project

Rutledge AV

Brisbane’s iconic building, Brisbane City Hall, closed in January 2010 to undertake a $215 million restoration. Rutledge was commissioned to install new (and upgrade the existing) audiovisual and stage lighting systems. The works included the Council Chambers, Lord Mayor’s Office, meeting and function rooms, Museum of Brisbane, Ithaca Auditorium and the Main Auditorium. A major challenge was working in an iconic heritage building - with its marble staircases, vaulted ceilings, chandeliers and tiled floors. In all, Rutledge worked almost 9000 man-hours, installing 6 kilometres of cable over the 20-month construction period.

Voice/Data

Fredon (Qld)

The $1.76bn Gold Coast University Hospital is a major expansion of public health services on the Gold Coast. Made up of seven main buildings and a total floor space of over 170,000 square metres, Fredon installed the entire communications infrastructure for the new hospital. Delivering a structure of this scale required a number of detailed planning and design stages. Fredon developed an efficient network design, with the capacity to change and grow to meet the future health service needs of the community. Fredon’s team worked over 147,000 man-hours on site, installing three million metres of cable and over 40,000 outlets - all with no lost time injuries.

Commercial - Large Project

Blue Star Pacific

With over 100 design drawings and a highly technical specification comprising some 1000 pages, the Carseldine Government Office project had a tight construction program of just 40 weeks. Precision programming and procurement were the key to satisfying the client’s high expectations. Blue Star Pacific provided a complete electrical installation - consisting of general and UPS power, essential and non-essential power, and lighting control. Other works ranged from alterations to the existing substation, through to main switchboards, security, telecommunications and audiovisual. The project offered a potential challenge in the highly complex backup generator system. With parallel generators on-site, synchronisation of the two generators with the local high-voltage grid required precise integration and control functionality programming.

Energy Efficiency & Environment

Stowe Australia

The Sir Samuel Griffith Centre in the Griffith University, Brisbane, is intended to be the country’s first zero-emission, self-powering, teaching and research facility. Solar panels store energy in batteries to provide a consistent power supply, with the excess energy used for the system chillers at night - providing chilled water for the main air conditioning the following day. The excess energy is stored as hydrogen in a metal hydride system. The involvement in this hydrogen storage system was the first major renewable energy systems project undertaken by Stowe Australia. Critical monitoring was required for the overseas technology, ensuring it was delivered on schedule and that the equipment was modified as required to meet Australian standards.

Workplace Health & Safety

Blue Star

By implementing a proactive risk assessment-style approach to all of its operations, the Blue Star group minimises the risk of injury to its employees and ensures that their workplaces remain safe. Blue Star has a full-time safety manager who has the responsibility of managing the company’s safety systems. Given the inherent risks of the construction and electrical industries, the company considers the role of safety manager an integral position in the organisation.

Industrial Small Project

Stowe Australia

The Abbot Point Water Augmentation Project created a self-sufficient water source for use in dust suppression on the stockpiles of coal waiting to be loaded onto ships. Stowe Australia’s scope of works included reticulation for high-voltage, low-voltage and communications; high-voltage cabling and terminations; a new isolator and transformer; internal and external lighting; general power; motor power and control; fibre-optic backbone and numerous control system solutions. Everyone working on-site undertook a full-day site induction to ensure a full understanding of the facility’s operation - while defensive driving programs, working at heights and confined spaces training were also undertaken as site requirements to complete the scope of works.

Industrial - Large Project

Perigon

The Chinchilla Operations and Production Support Hub is the nerve centre of the Queensland Curtis Liquid Natural Gas project’s production and operation activities. Reliable high-voltage power and N+1 redundant UPS, backed up by automatically operated emergency diesel power generation - all installed by Perigon - ensures uninterrupted operations of plant control and monitoring, and critical data flow via the fibre-optic pathways. Part way through the works, the client decided to expand the N+1 system redundancy from just the local data centre and the ICSS operations centre to the entire project. This upgrade required a second emergency standby generator and a second set of consumer mains, feeding a second 400 V main switchboard.

Commercial - Small Project

Blue Star Atlantic

The University of Queensland’s Lakes Bus Station Project transformed the second busiest bus station in the central Brisbane area from a single platform station to a modern, double-sided bus station. Blue Star Atlantic’s works - completed while the station remained operational - included the removal of existing bus station lighting and light poles; new underground conduit and pit reticulation; new switchboards, and lighting and power for the station; CCTV cameras, help points; and a public address system. A major challenge for Blue Star Atlantic was that the design documentation had been completed four years earlier - requiring open communication between the stakeholders to deal with any changed requirements and to allow for new technologies to be incorporated.

Small Contracting Business

Mobile Test 'n' Cal

Mobile Test 'n' Cal, which was established in December 2010, was approached by Boom Sherrin to test its entire fleet of 78 rental elevated working platform trucks, or ‘cherry pickers’, for post-rebuild acceptance. The process was scheduled to take 12 months. The first challenge was to procure and import the required testing machinery (high-voltage testing apparatus capable of testing at up to 300 kV) in a timely manner. Testing as soon as each rebuild was completed was the key to returning the trucks to the rental pool and generating revenue for the client as soon as possible. Mobile Test 'n' Cal was also able to assist in rectifying certain problems that were encountered after the rebuild of some trucks.