Black & Veatch/Thiess joint venture to help renew Melbourne’s ageing water assets

A joint venture between engineering, consulting and construction company Black & Veatch and integrated engineering and services provider Thiess has been named as part of Melbourne Water’s Program Service Providers Framework for the Water Plan 3 Capital Program.

The service providers will bid for a proposed $500 million worth of projects across the first three years of Water Plan 3 - a program focused on renewing and upgrading assets throughout Melbourne Water’s portfolio. The joint venture is one of two service providers competing for the work in discrete packages on an ongoing basis.

The framework involves Design Only, Design and Construct, and Construct Only work across two sub-programs of work - treatment plants and transfer/pipelines. Thiess will be responsible for all Construct Only work and Design and Construct work for transfer/pipelines, and will deliver all Design and Construct treatment plant work jointly with Black & Veatch.

The three-year framework agreement is designed to deliver the works more effectively, allowing Melbourne Water to deliver multiple small to mid-scale projects competitively and efficiently. The terms of the framework agreement can be extended for a further seven years.

“The program of improvements is significant and represents a concerted effort to deliver long-term value for Melbourne Water customers,” said James Currie, Managing Director of Black & Veatch in Australia.

Thiess’ Victorian Business Unit General Manager, Rod Heale, added that the contract is the largest in Victoria’s water industry in the past three years.