Teamwork makes the dream work

In July 2022, one of our Energy customers identified a timber deck on an offshore facility was falling apart and rotting away posing a health and safety hazard for everyone aboard. We sat down with M&IS Energy Senior Project Engineer, Tom Shenton to learn about more about this project.  

Monadelphous was engaged to help find a solution to replace a degraded timber deck for our customer. The affected area is located outside the kitchen and living quarters and where containers get lifted on and off the facility.   

Tom said the team had to work in limited space while completing the work because there were lifeboats directly behind the area.  

“We had to complete the scope in two halves to make sure the chefs still had access and there was enough space for 160 people to muster in case of an emergency,” he said.  

He shared the biggest challenge when reinstating the deck was sourcing the quantity of wood as many timber mills in Western Australia (WA) have shut down or are due to close by the end of this year. 

“We managed to source 15 cubic meters of timber hardwood from Pemberton in WA, all cut to different sizes. Then it was a matter of getting it to the facility and finding the people with the right skillset to be able to work with timber in an offshore environment, given it’s not typical work for us in Energy,” he said.   

Tom said this project was unique because it required the integration of riggers, painters, catering and carpenters to work collaboratively to execute the work.  

“When I initially asked our recruitment team to look for carpenters, they told me this was a first for the Energy business. We apparently had people in formwork working in mining and construction, but not in our area, so we had to look for relevant experience because there was no one we'd seen working offshore currently. 

“The team worked really well together from the minute they were mobilised to site, everyone knew their stuff, they were eager and ready to roll up their sleeves to get the job done. Feedback from around site was they were great people and exactly the sort they would want on the job,” he said. 

Here at Monadelphous, we pride ourselves on providing safe, reliable and innovative solutions for our customers and our Energy crew has exemplified exactly that - well done to all involved.