A message from Lorna Rechichi, Feb '23

As we hit the end of February, I am sure most of us are wondering where the first two months have gone! The start of the year has been a bit of a whirlwind for the Heavy Lift team with lots of achievements being delivered across the business unit. We started the year with an incident free month in January, an excellent achievement. 

With a strong pipeline of work ahead for Heavy Lift we are continuing to invest in equipment to deliver secured works. We have recently acquired 36 lines of Cometto self propelled modular trailers (SPMTs) and are preparing for the arrival of five new crawler cranes and three hydraulic cranes. We have an ongoing focus on the completion of major inspections to prepare the fleet for the large volume of work going forward.

The Enerpac Gantry uncontrolled load movement that occurred during assembly in February is an ongoing reminder to challenge our thinking while risk assessing the task i.e. have we considered all credible scenarios of what could go wrong? Are there risks of uncontrolled movement? Have we changed the equipment or methodology used? Do we have adequate exclusion zones?

An update on projects happening across Heavy Lift:

• In Port Hedland, work for NGL Locomotives has involved the receipt of 16 locomotives via 30 lines of SPMT from ship cranes at the Pilbara Ports Authority and then relocating, stooling, transporting and unloading direct to the FMG rail track using our gantry system. The team have also recently relocated a track machine from BHP’s Nelson Point to the M&IS facility in Port Hedland, commencing an ongoing pipeline of work for track machine maintenance in the M&IS facility.
• At FMG crane services, the team received excellent client feedback from the Kings Valley shutdown in February across safety, quality and overall leadership and execution. The Eliwana fixed plant maintenance team have continued to service the 12-month project to offload 12 metre culverts from trailers for the Flying Fish Haul road. The team were also involved in two shutdowns in the month of January and two in February to rebuild, replace and change out multiple critical paths of the plant. A shout out to the Solomon fixed plant team who were engaged in a critical breakdown change out of a conveyor belt during the month.
• We continue to have a crew out at Iron Bridge continuing the heavy haul scope of work
• The Woodside team have continued to be a focal point for the Pluto 2 project teams who are establishing facilities on site. Heavy Lift have provided services to a number of contractors as part of this early establishment.
• At the West Gate project in Melbourne, we are now fully mobilised, and work is ongoing in the movement of bridge portals via SPMTs. The team are doing a fantastic job dealing with a dynamic and large-scale environment quite different from the Northwest of WA.

All this work on site, in particular the way the team respond to break-in and last-minute changes could not be completed without the outstanding teamwork and the assistance of the planning team, depots, maintenance, mobilisation, tendering and project admin teams. With everyone’s contribution and relentless focus on safety, we continue to build solid relationships with our clients and receive outstanding feedback. Thank you and congratulations to everyone for these achievements.

A reminder and a call out that We Want Your Ideas!! If you have any improvement ideas, please discuss them with your teams and leaders and capture them within the MProve platform. If you are onsite and unable to access the platform yourself, please let your supervisor know and they can submit your idea on your behalf – there is an annual prize of $10k as part of the EC Innovation Awards! 

On a sad note, we shared with the business the passing of John Rubino, our much-loved former Chairman. I feel very honoured to have had the unwavering support and friendship of John over my time with Monadelphous. I learnt more from John than I have space to write about, in particular, his ability to make you feel motivated, challenged and supported whilst helping facilitate your thought process was legendary. He always had time to listen, share a story and made you feel better spending time with him. Rest in peace John, we will continue to make you proud.

Stay safe team.

Lorna