Ideagen Plant Assessor and BMD

The Inland Rail project is a pivotal development for Australia’s transport network that will enable rail freight transit times of under 24 hours between Melbourne and Brisbane via regional Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

The new infrastructure will transform the way freight is moved on the eastern seaboard. It will connect regional Australia to markets more efficiently, drive substantial cost savings for producers and consumers, and deliver significant economic benefits. 

Spanning more than 1,700 kilometres, Inland Rail is the largest freight rail infrastructure project in Australia and one of the most significant rail infrastructure projects in the world.

The 2017/18 Federal Budget included $8.4 billion for the ARTC to deliver the Inland Rail project. ARTC split the project into 13 separate ‘packages’ (one in Victoria, seven in NSW and five in QLD) to be delivered over 10 years. 

In October 2018, the INLink JV (BMD and Fulton Hogan JV) was awarded the $310 million contract to build the first of the 13 stages covering the section between Parkes and Narromine in central western NSW.

The project includes a full rebuild of the rail tracks, rail formation and supporting structures in the existing rail corridor to increase the size of loads that can be carried and improve transit times. The upgrades involve:

• Replacing 97 kilometres of existing sleepers and track with concrete sleepers and new steel tracks
• Realigning the track to minimise tight curves
• Raising the level of the rail formation (the supportive foundations of the track)
• Replacing and upgrading culverts
• Constructing crossing loops (areas where trains can pass each other) and improving level crossings, signaling, signage, fencing and services and utilities within the corridor
  

As of July 2019, over 78 kilometres of existing rail had been removed and construction of 5.3km of new track was well under way.  Earthworks are scheduled to be finished by the end of 2019 and rail signaling activity should be completed by March next year.

BMD is the JV partner that was assigned as the lead on all safety related matters on this project and one of the first actions was to introduce the Plant Assessor machinery safety platform to manage compliance for all plant and equipment that will be used on site.

Brian Olsen, Group Safety Manager for BMD, said that the business is always looking at ways it can improve its already excellent safety record and ensuring its staff and contractors are working in an environment where their safety is always seen as a priority. 

“As a business, we’d looked at implementing a more robust and accessible machinery safety management system almost a decade ago,” explains Brian.

“Our first contact with Plant Assessor was around 2013 when we saw the system being used on a job we’d been invited onto. We endeavored to incorporate it into a few projects we were managing in Sydney in 2016 including the Schofields Road and Narellan Road upgrades and, while it proved very useful, there were a few reasons it didn’t get the traction we were hoping for.”

“Aside from the obvious benefits around mitigating risk, we knew that implementing a more regimented and accessible system like Plant Assessor would ultimately improve site access and save us time and money, so we continued to scope the solution.”

Up until the end of 2018 BMD used the Microsoft SharePoint document management system to manage data relating to machinery safety.  “While it was web-based it was somewhat limited in how we could capture and share information and the process of loading data into the system was labour intensive,” explains Brian.

"BMD has now mandated that all major projects will now have to use the Plant Assessor platform to manage plant and equipment and safety."

“We like the fact that all information is recorded and presented in real time. It’s fully electronic and available 24/7 on any device, so from a time and resources perspective it much more efficient.”

The roll-out of Plant Assessor on the INLink JV (BMD and Fulton Hogan JV) project has been a complete success. 

There are at least 120 items of plant and equipment operational on site each day and over 300 items being used across the site over the duration of the project. The project team has full visibility on the status of every machine. Each sub-contractor is aware of its responsibilities around completing pre-start checks and reporting on other key safety indicators such as service schedules.

Brian says that having a project champion on-site was a key factor in the roll-out and take up of the Plant Assessor platform.

“We chose the INLink JV project to cement Plant Assessor into our broader safety management systems because we knew our on-site safety manager, Tony Horton and his team would embrace it and manage the process,” explains Brian.

“Tony and his team worked closely with our sub-contractors to ensure everyone was aware of the requirements as soon as contracts were awarded. The team at Plant Assessor provided on-boarding materials for sub-contractors to give them some background on the product and documentation required to get them up and running.”

“Tony and his team have stayed very active in dealing with the day-to-day aspects of ensuring the system remains central to all machinery related activity. They ensure any issues are flagged, procedures to rectify are followed and outcomes are recorded.”

“Strong systems like Plant Assessor really do enhance the safety culture of the business and make everyone’s job easier.”

Check out BMD's thoughts on using Plant Assessor's MySite feature below.