In this month’s update, discover what it takes to support a huge construction operation like Snowy 2.0, as we build a 2,200 megawatt pumped hydro power station, more than 27 kilometres of waterway tunnels and other infrastructure.
While drill and blast activities, rock bolting and shotcreting continue underground, excavators work on the intakes and specialist crews operate the tunnel boring machines (TBMs), there are hundreds of people providing critically important support services.
Andrea Musacchio, Services Assurance Manager for Snowy 2.0, takes a look at what goes on behind the scenes of Snowy 2.0.
A major project component is managing truck and light vehicle logistics.
This includes thousands of road safety inspections annually, more than 260 bus trips taking workers to and from site each week and about 780 heavy vehicle movements, such as the distinctive segment trucks carrying locally manufactured tunnel lining segments for the TBMs.
The security team work at the gatehouse controlling site access and scan more than 6,000 people and 3,000 vehicles each week.
There are 20 heavy vehicle convoys a day at Lobs Hole, all managed by traffic controllers.
So far there have been more than 130 escorted loads of very large components delivered to site, some more than 7 metres wide. Few see these loads because they’re completed at night to minimise impact on the local communities and other road users.
The Snowy 2.0 General Services team of 190 people provide support functions that are vital to the day-to-day running of the project.
With a workforce of 3,000 people, many of whom are based onsite, the cleaners are kept busy with almost 2,000 room cleans a week.
And it’s not surprising that there’s 75 caterers – they’re cooking more than 36,000 meals a week. That’s 17,000 eggs, 900 kilos of bacon and 2 and a quarter tonnes of sliced watermelon, just for starters.
The General Services crew conduct repairs and preventative maintenance around the camp facilities and also provide a site bus service that completes around 1,500 trips a week.
Trainers and fitness instructors help organise sporting competitions and oversee thousands of gym visits every month, while the community team provides workforce engagement and communication. There are also hundreds of people in offices managing administration, invoicing and documentation, and organising meetings, rosters and site visits.