MBA NSW Awards recognise excellence in safety, timber and heritage

Buildcorp has taken out the top award for safety innovation and been recognised for a diverse range of expertise at the 2021 Master Builders Association (MBA) NSW ‘Excellence in Construction’ Awards.

Buildcorp’s four awards cover solutions for mass timber construction, prefabrication strategy, systems innovation and heritage refurbishment projects. The new awards also pushed Buildcorp’s all-time MBA Award total past the 100-award milestone reached last month at the Victorian MBA Awards.

Buildcorp Managing Director Tony Sukkar AM said:
“These diverse MBA awards reinforce that our solutions are industry leading and that our teams are trusted to deliver projects with complex challenges and important contexts.
“None of this would be possible without the support and trust of our valued project partners and to them we are extremely grateful.

“While the awards for mass timber, heritage and prefabrication projects speak to the breadth of our expertise, the two awards for our Proactive Safety System demonstrate the important role safety plays in protecting people, partners and projects.”

WINNER: Safety Innovation
Buildcorp’s Proactive Safety System

‘Proactive’ is more than just our safety mindset; it also informs the design and measurement of our safety system to help our teams prevent incidents and ‘Lost Time’ injury statistics from occurring.
The system uses data insights and independent audits to set the criteria that determines whether a site is operating as ‘Proactive’ on our rating scale, as this is where data confirms accidents are least likely to occur. The system also benefits from a regular cycle of continual improvement as weekly proactive safety initiatives are put forward by our sites and become standard in the system.

The team also created a Safety ‘why’ induction campaign that uses film and noticeboards to remind people about the personal reasons we keep each other safe. Encouragingly, the combination of our proactive culture, data and risk management helped us achieve a new record low for lost time injuries (LTIFR) in FY2021 which was 40% lower than the industry benchmark.

WINNER: Tertiary Buildings up to $50m
Macquarie University Ainsworth Building

Macquarie University Ainsworth Building foyer

This project set a high bar for mass timber design and construction in the tertiary education sector and has already received awards for sustainability and design. The striking four-storey timber building was designed by Architectus and Arup and features a visible structure and core made from prefabricated Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and Glulam.

Buildcorp worked with project partners to manage the timber journey from design parameters to drive buildability, fabrication compliance, procurement and logistics, environmental accreditations and materials handling. Watch the film to learn more about our timber journey.

Partners: Macquarie University, Architectus, Arup, Johnstaff, WT Partnership and Euroline

WINNER: Refurbishment/Renovation/Extension $50m – $100m
44 Martin Place heritage refurbishment

44 Matin Place feature staircase

The refurbishment of 44 Martin Place required solutions to restore, strengthen and modernise the 1930s commercial building in its busy CBD location. Significant changes included adding a two-storey pavilion to the rooftop and connecting all ten existing floors of the building with a penetration that houses a striking new feature staircase.

Buildcorp’s solutions covered live environment management; services upgrade; heritage matching and protection; structural strengthening; methodologies and access including establishing an internal hoist; and craning the 10-storey staircase components through the roof. View the project film.

Partners: Gwynvill Group, CBRE Project Management, Hassell, TTW and Euroline

WINNER: Site Safety – Commercial Projects $50million & over
Santa Sophia Catholic College, de-risking heights and falls

Santa Sophia Catholic College aerial

To deliver the $150m Santa Sophia Catholic College in just 16 months, Buildcorp developed an innovative prefabrication strategy and used our Proactive Safety System to manage risk on the fast-paced site. The school consists of five building zones of between four and six storeys, containing floor void penetrations and connected by a series of podiums. With this came increased risk from working at heights and along live edges above lower ground operations.

The team firstly identified high risk items involving the risk of falls and movement of powered Elevated Work Platforms (EWPs) such as scissor and boom lifts. They then designed ways to either eliminate, substitute, isolate, engineer or ‘administrate’ safety solutions. Examples include:

• Eliminating ladders through perimeter, engineered and mobile scaffolding systems
• Robust rope and flags with multi-language signage used to restrict access to an EWP area
• Higher-level floor penetrations covered by scaffolding and lower levels covered by netting
• Regular ‘Working Safely at Heights’ and EWP training for all workers

The site recorded no injuries from any fallen objects, achieved a positive safety assessment from the Federal Safety Commissioner and scored over 90% every month on internal safety audits which speaks to their consistent application.

Partners: Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, TSA Management, BVN, Northrop Consulting Engineers, WT Partnership, Euroline