Watpac are currently working on the $50 million development of the State Sports Facilities project at Albert Park. This project will deliver new and improved facilities at Albert Park that will be utilised by sporting clubs and the wider community. The new Lakeside Oval development will provide a new home for Athletics Victoria and deliver world class facilities that will cater for any level of competition.

The 1926 heritage grandstand will also be restored and will accommodate the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS). While the Lakeside Oval will have an international standard athletics track and also provide improved facilities for the South Melbourne Football Club. In addition there will be training and competition facilities for touch football and soccer.

Some of the main features are a new FIFA sized natural grass pitch for Soccer, a new northern grandstand, IIAF approved running tracks, warm up tracks, hammer cages, long jump pits and pole vaulting facilities. Electronic scoreboards, corporate boxes, upgraded presentation areas and television broadcast facilities will also be added. All these facilities will be made available to the public when they are not being used for an event.

The project is managed by Major Projects Victoria on behalf of Sport and Recreation Victoria for the Victorian State Government. In addition there are numerous companies contracted in design and delivery of the project. Work commenced on the synthetic pitches in Albert Park in late 2009, and the facilities are expected to be fully operational in late 2011.

Eastern Plant Hire have proudly been the major supplier of equipment such as Excavators, Bobcats, Traxcavators, Bulldozers and Tandem Tippers, facilitating both on site works and off site cartage and material disposal.

Watpac Site Manager Mr Peter Kennedy has been impressed with the service provided by EPH saying that "Eastern Plant Hire are easy to deal with, they don't give me any stress and that's what I need on a project like this".

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The South Morang Rail extension project has progressed rapidly since kicking off in the middle of 2010. Major works between Keon Park and Epping are on schedule and should be completed by late November this year. This part of the project will deliver upgrades to Keon Park train station and provide for brand new stations at both Thomastown and Epping.

The project has had over 90% rail line duplication with new rail lines being laid between Epping and South Morang. South Morang will also have a new train station and bus terminals constructed right at the doorstep of the Westfield Shopping Centre.

Over the course of the project EPH has been the primary supplier of trucks by forming a collaborative relationship with the entire SMREP crew to ensure delivery of services met expectation. Project superintendent Gary Auld stated that, "EPH's service has been first class and he would have no problems in using EPH again on future projects."

The entire project will most likely be completed in the middle of 2012, making it 12 months ahead of schedule.

SMREP (New South Morang Train Station/Civic Drive)

Civil works are expected to be completed by the end of November with the project 12 months ahead of schedule. Photos attached are from the site of the new South Morang train station and the redirected Civic Drive. EPH has maintained a constant supply of trucks on the project.

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 Melbourne Water

Melbourne Water is replacing a 110 year old section of the existing Melbourne Main Sewer. The new main sewer travels approximately 2.3km from the Docklands, crossing the Yarra River upstream of the Charles Grimes Bridge, into Port Melbourne.

Construction commenced in 2008 and is due to be completed by early 2012. Melbourne Water awarded the $220 million construction contract to John Holland, one of Australia's largest and most diverse specialist contracting businesses.

The replacement of the sewer is an important project that will deliver health and environmental benefits to meet the future growth of Melbourne. Working away under the city streets and buildings is a 164 tonne tunnel boring machine - nick named 'Lucy Loo' by local primary school students. This machine is busy boring a 3m diameter tunnel 15 meters below the surface while residents, commuters and pedestrians alike go about their daily activities largely unaware of the activity under their feet.

EPH was awarded the cartage contractor based on its track record of getting the job done. The transporting and disposal of the tunnel spoil created some very unique challenges as very little of the material being extracted was dry. One of the pictures (below) show a shaft leading to the tunnel that actually runs across the bottom of the Yarra River.

During the installation of the pipeline, saturated sludge entered into the tunnel from the bottom of the river which needed to be removed. This was done by a small front end loader also shown in the picture below. The front end loader was equipped with a specialty curved bucket designed specifically to hold the sludge. The sludge needed to be emptied into a hopper and then pumped to the surface into a waiting truck making it necessary to transport the material in trucks with purposely equipped sealed tail gates.

The project also highlighted EPH's ability to cart and dispose contaminated materials ranging from Category 'A', 'B' and 'C' to potential and actual Acid Sulphates, demonstrating our versatility to adapt to any situation.

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