On site: Sydney’s new £2.7bn airport emerges from ‘biggest engineering earthworks in Australia’

New Civil Engineer - Belinda Smart

19 April 2024

NCE has had sight of advanced stages of construction at Australia’s ‘greenfield’ Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport (WSI).

The A$5.3bn (£2.7bn) airport is being developed by project owner Western Sydney Airport Corporation (WSA) – an Australian Federal Government Business Enterprise (GBE).

NCE visited the under-construction WSI in March as a guest of delivery partner Bechtel, which was initially appointed in 2018 to work alongside WSA to define the scope of the project. Since then, Bechtel’s principal role has been to manage the main works contracts including terminal, airside, landside and enterprise technology on behalf of WSA.

Bechtel project director Andy Millunzi confirmed the company worked with WSA on the development of the design scope, as well as administering the technical service provider contracts, external stakeholder management and interface management through design definition. It also helped support WSA in developing its business requirements.

Millunzi told NCE he believed Bechtel’s value as a delivery partner lay in its experience as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) specialist. It has helped deliver airport projects around the world including Muscat Airport in Oman and Hamad Airport (Doha, Qatar) and is one of the few companies that has experience building greenfield airports.

• CBP Acciona Joint Venture completed the earthworks packages
• AeroWest, a joint venture between companies BMD and Seymour White, is delivering the landside package,
• Multiplex is building the terminal and DXC is delivering the enterprise technology component of the project

[Read more: On site: Sydney’s new £2.7bn airport emerges from ‘biggest engineering earthworks in Australia’ | New Civil Engineer]