Jan De Nul’s Oz win

The Port Botany Expansion Project of the joint venture Baulderstone – Jan De Nul NV was chosen over six other strong contenders as the most outstanding example of construction excellence. The € 400m project involved the design and construction of the expansion of Port Botany in Sydney.

In total, 60 hectares of land was reclaimed from the sea, 1.85 km of new deep water berths were constructed, and a new shipping channel was dredged. The project is considered to be the most significant port infrastructure project in Australia for over 30 years.

The work was praised because of the engineering ingenuity with which the quay wall was constructed. In total some 200 concrete counterfort units of 640 tonne each were constructed on site, transported overland and then manoeuvred into position with centimetre precision using a purpose built sheerleg barge. The coordination between this construction phase and the dredging and reclamation works was challenging endeavour and the works had to be performed within the very strict environmental guidelines set by the client and the regulators.

It is the first time that a Belgian company was awarded this prominent Australian award.