Cost-saving collaborations scoop alliance awards

The Alliancing Association of Australasia (AAA) has awarded its 2011 Excellence Awards to a diverse array of infrastructure teams at a ceremony in Brisbane earlier this week.

Winners included alliances from rail to dam-strengthening projects, busway to wastewater upgrade programs, as well as individual recognition for a senior alliancing practitioner who pioneered collaborative practices in the region.

AAA managing director Alain Mignot said winners of this year’s AAA awards were all very different, ranging across various Australian states and diverse industry sectors, but all demonstrated how good value and public benefit can be achieved despite tight budgets and economic uncertainty.

“This years’ winners epitomise the value of alliancing to deliver complex and critical community infrastructure early and on or below budget through innovative design solutions and construction methods,” he said.

The 2011 AAA Excellence Awards winners are:
Team of Excellence in a Project Alliance: Horizon Alliance (Queensland Rail)
Highly commended: Bridge to Bay Alliance (New South Wales)
Highly commended: Wellington Dam Alliance (Western Australia)
Team of Excellence in a Long Term Alliance: Pipelines Alliance (Melbourne Water)
Outstanding Contribution to Industry—Relationship Contracting: Allan Henderson (Sydney Water)

Naming Allan Henderson for the individual award was a unanimous decision by the judges, Mignot reports. “Mr Henderson has contributed 15 years to alliancing, more than 40 years to the industry and has worked for Sydney Water Corporation for 48 years. During that time he demonstrated courage and determination by being the region’s first public sector infrastructure agency to use alliancing.”

This is the fifth year the AAA Award program has celebrated collaboration in critical infrastructure projects and programs in Australia and New Zealand.