IPWEA Vic Blog

View WHK Market Update for 28 January 2011 here. For more information visit WHK website here.

WHK new address is Level 17, 181 William Street, Melbourne Vic 3000. WHK main telephone contact number has also changed to 03 9258 6700.

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Engineers Australia have named 2011 as “The Year of Humanitarian Engineering” (YOHE).

To launch the YOHE, Engineers Australia Victoria Division has invited Mr Peter Baxter, Director General, AusAID to present as Keynote at the Fellows Luncheon on Thursday, 10 March. Mr Baxter will address the audience on the important contributions Engineers have made to the re-development of disaster areas and how we can further assist in the future.

The luncheon is to be held at Palladium Ballroom Crown towers 12 till 2pm.  Download the brochure here

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IPWEAvic Women Group plans to have a table at the International Womens Breakfast (conducted by Women in Engineering, Women in Construction and Institute of Project Management) to be held on Tuesday 8^th March at Federation Square. Contact Vicki Shelton to arrange your participation vshelton@geelongcity.vic.gov.au

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Inconsistency between council engineering standards has led to greater burden on business and increased time and cost in the delivery of civil infrastructure. To address this, an Infrastructure Design Manual (IDM) has been created to harmonise civil construction standards and is now being adopted by regional councils across Victoria. The standards also provide the opportunity for councils to share knowledge, costs and risks of maintaining engineering standards. With Victorian local government spending $1 billion annually on civil works and the private sector spending an additional $1.8 billion, a shared set of standards can help to free up millions of dollars. To date, 28 regional councils are either using or currently adopting the standards, with more councils expected to join in the coming months.

Claude Cullino, CEO of Civil Contractors Federation, urged councils to adopt the IDM. “The IDM creates greater certainty around design and construction requirements. This will lead to more cost effective delivery of civil infrastructure for councils, and reduce the burden on the industry,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be great to drop the cost of doing business by some 3% to 5% by adopting the IDM?”

A complementary standard for metropolitan councils is also underway. Developed by Victoria’s six growth area councils, the standards will be available for adoption by all metropolitan councils in the coming months. Local Government Victoria offers participating councils assistance and training to help implement the standards, including integration into planning schemes.

The IDM is available to councils, designers and contractors at www.designmanual.com.au. For more information on the IDM or to get your council involved, contact Angelo D’Costa at Local Government Victoria on (03) 9651 7051 or angelo.d’costa@dpcd.vic.gov.au.

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REMINDER:Applications for the 2011 MEFvic Study Tour close on 4th February.  Details available here.

There has been a few problems with the Municipal Engineeing Foundation website recently.  For those who have submitted applications for the study tour and have not had acknowledgement please contact Merv Paton as a matter of priority on (03) 9699 1599 or mefvic@ozemail.com.au

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Today I received notification that Max Pawsey passed away last night.  He had been ill for a brief time.  Max Pawsey was a City Engineer at Berwick and Coburg very active in the Institute of Municipal Engineers until his retirement in the early 1990’s.  He went on to write a number of publications around the engineering principles behind building of the pyramids and was the author of Lances column which was published regularly in the local Berwick newspaper. 

Max was very much involved with the IME.  He was an inspirational engineer and well liked.  He even has a reserve named after him in Narre Warren.  His memory will live on in the communities in which he served.   Some of you may know of Mr Pawsey and the municipal engineering work he undertook.

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The Australian Construction Equipment Expo is to be held at Sandown Racecourse between 24 and 26 February 2011. 

Note:  You must pre-register if you want to obtain free admission to the event otherwise the cost of entry is $20.  Pre-register here.

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The Bureau of Metrology has flood forcasting tools available on their website including IFDs 

See: http://www.bom.gov.au/water/

and http://www.bom.gov.au/water/designRainfalls/index.shtml

If you follow that second link, there is a box on the right hand side of the page with “Design Rainfalls” and the first heading is through to the IFD section – very useful tool.

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Melbourne Water Catchments Waterway Group have updated their webpage with information relating to stormwater harvesting. The aim of the webpage is to provide consistency for stormwater licence applications and to use an online application system to apply for a licence. Content of the webpage includes:-

• What is stormwater?
• Why is stormwater harvesting important?
• What does an urban stormwater harvesting scheme look like?
• Examples of stormwater harvesting projects.
• How to obtain a stormwater licence – including a pre-application and formal application stage.

Take a look at the webpage www.melbournewater.com.au/stormwaterharvesting

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The Procurement Excellence program is just one of the initiatives being rolled out by Local Government Victoria (LGV) through the Councils Reforming Business program. Central to the Procurement Excellence Program is the Procurement Roadmap, which gives councils the opportunity to analyse their procurement performance, identify needs and tailor an individual improvement program.

With local government in Victoria spending upwards of $3 billion on goods and services each year, strategic procurement goes to the heart of councils’ operations and their ability to provide community services and infrastructure.

Councils now have an opportunity to improve their procurement practices through the collaboration and streamlining that is taking place across the sector.  In turn, councils can increase savings, boost their efficiency and realise triple bottom line objectives.

The Procurement Excellent Program is a collaborative exercise, with senior managers and staff from within council working closely with LGV and experienced consultants.  Opportunities for collaboration and improvement are also explored through regional workshops.

The roadmap process is flexible to be able to respond to specific needs and enable both the executive team and key officers of local councils to gain an understanding of the specific issues and opportunities.

The roll-out in metropolitan Melbourne is scheduled to commence in February 2011, beginning with five Introductory Workshops.

For more information about the Procurement Roadmaps, please contact Amelia Chapman on (03) 9651 7772 or amelia.chapman@dpcd.vic.gov.au or visit the Local Government Procurement eHub at www.lgprocurementehub.com.

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