Airservices Projects Win National Recognition

Airservices has picked up its third project management award in as many weeks with its new Sunshine Coast fire station taking out the award in the Defence /Aerospace category of the Queensland Australian Institute of Project Management awards last week. It follows state awards for the Tasmanian Wide Area Multilateration (TAS WAM) and Automatic Dependant Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) projects in the Defence/ Aerospace category of Tasmania and Victoria respectively.

Airservices CEO, Greg Russell, said the awards highlighted major projects undertaken as part of the organisation’s $900 million national capital expenditure program.

“The program comprises of more than 80 projects of varying sizes and complexity, all of which are essential to our ability to provide services to the aviation industry and the Australian community,” Mr Russell said.

“We have invested heavily in building our project management capability over the past 12 months and these awards are recognition that this attention has been worthwhile,” Mr Russell said.

“The successful completion of these projects and their recognition by AIPM is testament to the skills, dedication and professionalism of our people across Australia. I commend all Airservices staff involved in these projects for their efforts.”

This multiple award achievement will mean that each project will now be considered for a national award at the Australian Institute of Project Management National Conference in Darwin later next month. TAS WAM provided enhanced surveillance of air traffic across Tasmania. The system is the first of its type in Australia and one of the first on this scale in the world. The project successfully dealt with the combination of new technology, difficult terrain, and a stringent regulatory environment.

The ADS-B project was equally important. It saw the deployment of 28 ADS-B sites and creation of a new international air traffic control (ATC) surveillance separation standard, new ATC and pilot procedures and phraseologies, and a safer more efficient method of airspace management.

The Sunshine Coast Fire Station is the first example of a prototype design which is highly functional, compliant and modern. It will influence the design of all future airport fire stations in Australia.