Building bridges: SA biz presses on as T2D saga continues
A regional SA business is getting on with its key role in Torrens to Darlington, as new demands emerge today for accountability over organised crime infiltration of the project.
SA-based Bowhill Engineering CEO Jodie Hawkes says she is pressing on with shaping an Eiffel Tower’s worth of structural steel tunnel segments amid controversy surrounding the megaproject.
Her firm – based at Bowhill in the state’s Riverland –won a major slice of the state government’s contract for the construction of enormous underground tunnels.
The company is building large, highly complex steel tunnel segments for the $15.4 billion Torrens to Darlington project, which in recent weeks has been beset by controversy with organised crime elements infiltrating a labour hire business working on the site.
Just this morning, the state Opposition demanded key figures in charge of the T2D Alliance – the consortium of companies building the tunnels – front SA Parliament’s Budget and Finance Committee.
“We hope the alliance can provide a clearer picture of this sorry situation and what action it’s taking to safeguard the project that’s worth billions,” Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn said.
“You only have to look over the border to Victoria to see how devastating organised crime infiltration of a major government project can be if government doesn’t act,” Hurn said.
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Bowhill’s Hawkes said the amount of steel segments the company is making will weigh about as much as the Eiffel Tower once completed.
Bowhill was recently named SA Business of the Year at the SA Business Chamber Business and Export Awards and has invested $11 million in upgrading its facilities, equipment and technology, with funds going to new robots, a massive new warehouse and scaling up staff numbers.
At the peak of Bowhill’s contract, the business will be more than doubling its 60-person-strong workforce to 140 people.
Thanks to the investment, manual welding capacity increased by 3648 per cent, Hawkes said, while the robotic welding capacity has risen by 208 per cent.
“The numbers are staggering,” said Hawkes.
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“It feels like we’re a frog in a boiling pot, because the reality of it is that we’re a $15 million business that went above and beyond and won a $30 million project, now that has gone to more than $66 million.”
The project builds on Bowhill’s expertise in bridge building. The business is behind 17 bridges on the North-South Motorway, “and we’ve done bridges all around Australia”, said Hawkes.
“We like being known as the bridge builders,” she said.
“I love building a bridge. You get to see it, drive over it. They’re quite spectacular.”
Hawkes said tendering for a slice of T2D was competitive, but that the government’s requirements around using SA labour on site helped Bowhill’s bid.
Under the industry participation policy, the SA government has a target for 90 per cent SA labour on T2D.
“For us, that was a great foot in the door,” she said.
“It sort of forced them to have a look at us, and I believe that we are proving that we’re more than capable and that Australian manufacturing can be done here in Australia.”
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