Upskilling with stadiums

In 2006 the company was awarded the $152 million Skilled Park Stadium at Robina (currently called Cbus Super Stadium) to build a new home for the Gold Coast Titan’s NRL club. The project was situated on an environmentally sensitive site adjacent to an existing major flood plain, the Mudgeeraba Creek, a nearby residential development with canals, the Robina Hospital and Robina Railway Station. To add further to the complexity, a geotechnical survey of the site indicated a very high concentration of Acid Sulphate Soils. In response to stringent reporting and development approval conditions, Watpac developed extensive control measures by blending both Environmental and Quality Management Systems to meet and exceed regulatory requirements.

#BESIX Watpac’s Management Systems controls for this project were described by external parties as the pinnacle of systems application and delivery, establishing new industry quality benchmarks for excellence in environmental management.

On the back of this project, in 2007, Watpac upgraded its NATA certification to the revised Environmental Management Standard AS/NZS ISO 14001: 2004 and received full accreditation under the Australian Government’s Building and Construction OHS Accreditation Scheme.

The Skilled Park Stadium project subsequently won the Queensland Award and a high commendation for Best Solution to an Identified Workplace Health and Safety Issue at the National 2007 Safe Work Australia Awards. The project also won Sporting Facilities over $12 million, Project of the Year and Innovation in Workplace Health and Safety at the 2008 Master Builders Regional Awards on the Gold Coast.

The company continues to exceed environmental management project standards and innovation in workplace health and safety - we've received numerous awards for our leadership in health and safety on our project sites. In 2006, the company also commenced work on the $56 million Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland, completed the final stage of the Brisbane Cricket Ground and refurbished the iconic Myer Centre in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall.

In New South Wales, Watpac finished construction of two major buildings in the Sydney Olympic Park precinct (The Zone and Homebush Campus) and work started on Skyline Apartments in Brisbane's CBD.