Victoria’s Major Transport Infrastructure Authority (MTIA) has been featured in a new book as leading the way in the safe delivery of major infrastructure projects.
The work of the Authority, established in January to deliver Victoria’s Big Build, features in the publication Integrating Work Health and Safety into Construction Project Management to be released this week.
The $70 billion program of works encompasses 119 road and rail projects, including North East Link, the Level Crossing Removal Project, Metro Tunnel, West Gate Tunnel and major road upgrades.
Corey Hannett, Director-General of the MTIA, said the authority invested heavily in safe delivery by engaging with construction partners at the front end of projects to share known risks and hazards and establish clear safety performance expectations that could be monitored.
“We are there every step of the way providing support and sharing learnings and knowledge with our construction partners as they manage safety on these massive jobs,” he said. “Keeping everyone on our projects safe is our shared focus, and we work hand in glove with industry to achieve this,” Mr Hannett said.
The book, written by leading safety experts Distinguished Professor Helen Lingard and Professor Ron Wakefield of the Centre for Construction Work Health and Safety Research at RMIT, outlines leading safety practice in construction in Australia.
Known as the active client safety management model, the approach was devised during the Regional Rail Link Project and has since been adopted by the MTIA in the delivery of Victoria’s Big Build. The work now overseen by the authority has been the subject of four research projects conducted by RMIT.
“We have completed more than 74 million hours of work to deliver Victoria’s Big Build, and we are pleased to be an early adopter of an active client approach that is improving safety performance and has now been identified by leading researchers as the most effective way to deliver major projects safely,” said Mr Hannett.
Related stories:
- Alliance awarded $542.4M level crossing contract
- What does the Victorian budget mean for the state’s infrastructure sector?
- Dr. Collette Burke talks Victoria’s Digital Asset Strategy