By PHILIP HOPKINS

 

A PACKED room of Latrobe Valley contractors and industry companies gathered last Friday to learn what sort of jobs they may win in the Marinus Link (ML) electricity and telecommunications project between Gippsland and Tasmania.

Held in the Italian-Australia Club, Morwell, the meeting heard from Marinus executives; Latrobe City Mayor, Dale Harriman; and Colin Young, the Gippsland representative of the Industry Capability Network (ICN), which acts as a go-between for local industry seeking work on projects in Victoria.

About 1000 jobs, mainly in construction, are up for grabs in Stage 1 of Marinus Link, which will create a 750 megawatt electricity and telecommunications connection between Tasmania and the Latrobe Valley. Stage 2, further down the track, would add another 750MW to the project. Marinus Link will move electricity between the two states; it is not a generator of power.

A 255-kilometre undersea cable will be built under Bass Strait from Heybridge near Burnie in Tasmania, coming onshore in Waratah Bay near Sandy Point. It will then travel along a 90-kilometre alignment through South Gippsland to a converter station on Tramway Road near the former Hazelwood power station site.

Marinus Link’s Engagement Manager, Mark Lindsay, said ML had been liaising with more than 100 landowners on the route. The cable link would be built 15 metres under the sand dunes at Waratah Bay before going through farm land and HVP Plantations to the converter station at Hazelwood.

“There is some hilly country and challenging areas, but it’s achievable,” he said.

Up to 95 per cent of the cable is open trench.

“The balance is under railways, waterways and sensitive environmental areas,” he said.

On hand at the meeting were representatives of the two engineering and construction consortiums shortlisted for the major tender to build Stage 1. TasVic Greenlink and Empower have been shortlisted to proceed to a ‘development phase’; the two groups will assess the various bids from contractors.

Contractors must submit their bids through Marinus Link and the ICN Network Gateway site by Friday, March 7.

Marinus Link will then select the preferred proponent for the ‘Balance of Works’ package. The Balance of Works tender is the final step before ML secures all three major equipment and installation contracts for the project’s first stage.

Marinus Link is government-owned – 49 per cent by the commonwealth, 33.3 per cent by Victoria and 17.7 per cent by Tasmania. Mr Lindsay told the meeting that a final investment decision was needed this year.

“The numbers must add up,” he said.

If all approvals were received by the end of the year, construction of Stage 1 would start next year, with a scheduled completion date in 2030.

“A recommendation is soon to be in the Minister’s office. A decision on Stage 2 will be taken at a later date,” he said.

Mr Lindsay said the aim of the Morwell meeting was to get the ball rolling on job opportunities for local companies.

“We have to gear up ahead of time,” he said. Similar meetings were held in Leongatha and Burnie last week.

The Balance of Works scope coves onshore civil and installation works, including building the converted station buildings and the land cable civil works.

TasVic Greenlink is a joint venture of DT Infrastructure Pty Ltd, and Samsung C&T Corporation. Empower is a joint venture of CIMIC Group companies CPB Contractors P/L and UGL P/L.

Marinus Link expects onshore construction and labouring positions will make up a large percentage of the workforce, particularly during the peak of the construction phase of the project. Key roles for this workforce include labourer/general purpose hand, leading hand, truck drivers, excavator operators, crane operators, riggers/scaffolders, fencing contractors, painters, builders and warehouse managers.

Mayor Harriman told the meeting that the project offered exciting opportunities for Latrobe City, which was diversifying its economy, transitioning from brown coal power to renewable energy.

“There are lots of people here who can do the work,” he said.

“We have skills, capabilities and companies here who can do the job – people who have worked in the power industry, arguably the best in Victoria and Australia.”

Mr Young said ICN had helped 90,000 businesses in Australia, both large and small, through its Gateway data base. It was the ‘connector’ between projects like Marinus Link and the supply chain. There was a dedicated Gippsland page on Gateway. “In the past two years, there have been more than 500 expressions of interest in the project,” he said.

“Time is running out. You have two weeks (from Friday, February 21) to register your interest with the two proponents.

“You must ensure your profile is complete, up-to-date, setting out your unique characteristics, and what differentiates you from competitors.”