Outstanding Teamwork Award - Team

2009

• Department of Corrections PCDP Bunking Project - Stage 1 Team, New Zealand of David Ironside, Napier; Mattias Nilsson, Auckland; Jon Hill, Wellington; Eric Moroney, Napier; Graeme Phillips, Christchurch; Mariusz Tarnowski, Hamilton; Neville Clarke, Auckland; Greer Lees, Wellington; Gavin Dunn, Auckland; John Blackwell, Christchurch; Glenn Ellis, Auckland; Chris Beckham, Jason Bretherton, Christchurch; Peter Jones, Wellington; Jamie Lester, Christchurch; Roger Feasey, Auckland; Kyle McLean, Hamilton; Aaron Thomsen, Rotorua

The Department of Corrections PCDP Bunking – Stage 1 team came together from across all New Zealand Regions and Divisions and over a period of five weeks produced a document that exceeded the client expectations. The way people (both technical and support) pitched in and pulled together and delivered quality work, was impressive.

An example of the team effort was in the bidding process where a multidisciplinary team developed a methodology that convinced the client they didn't need to split the work between consultants.

There were many people directly and indirectly involved in this effort. As an example, on the first day of the project in setting up in the meeting room as our project room, within minutes our IT people were running network cables, hubs etc. The support we received from the office support team was critical to the success.

This was an Opus team at its best.

• Designed for Life Team, Cardiff, United Kingdom of Mike Hughes, Geoff Medlow, Darren Mills, Dan Jermin, Huw James, Pete Griffiths, Muhommed Qasim, John Lee, Laura Jones, Levi Major, Dougal Mason, Gwilym Francis, Steve Thomas and Simon Roberts

The team has been working with the client, Interserve, over the last three years on several significant projects including: the Llandough Hospital Adult Mental Health Unit, Prince Philip Hospital Breast Care Facilities and the Short Stay Unit and the University of Wales Children’s Hospital. Over these projects and period all members of the team have built up a strong relationship with their counterparts in Interserve, a relationship that Interserve recognise for its strengths.

The team all pull in the same direction and understand the objectives.  The strength of the team is recognised through Opus' involvement with most of opportunities which come out of the Designed for Life Framework.

• NZDF Explosive Ordinance Team of Palmerston North, New Zealand of Jason Cobham, Stephen McDonald, Jenny Young and Peter Marlow

The Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) project contained multiple infrastructure projects for the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) in Wigram (Christchurch), Trentham, Wellington CBD and Arch Hill, Auckland. This infrastructure component of the wider capability project was to provide specialist training and accommodation facilities to the newly created squadron, and to enable deployment of the teams to both overseas and domestic threats.

This project was delivered to strict timelines set by Cabinet.  The client recognised the achievements of this project by awarding the team a “highly commended” at the Minister of Defence Awards dinner in October 2009.

• Auckland Newmarket Rail Station Team, New Zealand of Peter Worral, Keryn Kliskey, Stefan Geelan and Daniel Muller

The Auckland Newmarket Rail Station Team completed the acclaimed new public transportation facility in December 2009.

The multidisciplinary team achieved an exemplary result for a very complex infrastructural improvement in an existing urban environment. Operating in a very constrained site and within a “live rail” situation the architects, civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, and fire engineers produced a world class design solution that has enriched the commercial and retail heart of Newmarket.

The team earned the respect of both the main clients involved in the project (ARTA & ONTRACK) and have gone on to capture a number of spin off projects from the success of this effort. Opus is now a recognised main player in the rail infrastructure sector.

Despite the very steep learning curve and intense pressure of the documentation and construction programme, the team were excellent at maintaining the quality of their work and limiting staff turnover.

• Tier 1 Building the Education Revolution (BER) Project Team, Creek Street, Brisbane, Australia of Simon Biggs, John Condon, Aaron Poole, Thanigasalam Yogeswaran, Brock Buckley, Jose Alforque and Kyle Garrett

Over a four month period, the Tier 1 BER Projects team has delivered full civil and structural documentation for 23 school BER projects. The projects included mostly new buildings such as multipurpose halls and resource buildings in primary schools throughout Brisbane and the wide bay area.

As the programmes required simultaneous design and documentation of a large number of buildings (often multiple buildings on each of the 23 sites), the project team demonstrated a high degree of internal organisation and teamwork that has resulted in the successful completion of the documentation of these projects.

• Architectural Building the Education Revolution (BER) Project Team, Milton, Brisbane, Australia of Dario Dell'Annunzziata, Cliff Ridoutt (Maroochydore), Carol Dowd, Greg Dunstan, Febianca Febianca, Jack Coates, Tim Bragg, Byron Wiegand (Maroochydore), and Sebastian Brameld

Over a six month period the Architecture BER Projects Team has provided a variety of inputs for 20 school BER Projects.   These inputs include assistance with funding applications, project definition plans, master plan reviews, schematic and developed designs, documentation and contract administration.

The tight project delivery time frames mandated by the Federal Government required a heightened level of commitment from the team which was freely given. Whilst meeting all delivery commitments design quality was not compromised, work delivered by the team in this period is now being used by the client agency as exemplas to other Architectural Firms engaged in the delivery of similar projects.

The team demonstrated a high degree of internal organisation, skill and commitment in the delivery of this body of work.

• New Brunswick Route 1 Gateway P3 Project team of Fredericton, Canada of Blake Wellner, Serge Levesque, Steve Charters, Shawn Landers, Mark Gunter, Katie Skead, Craig Isherwood, Brent Rickard, Karen Robichaud, Trevor Brown, Len Johnson, United Kingdom, and Graham Barrow from New Zealand

To meet the demanding challenges of this project, a core technical team was assembled that combined innovative skill with proven practical experience and engineering judgement led by Blake Wellner. Utilizing a multi-disciplinary team approach, we called upon technical specialists from Canada, Australasia and the United Kingdom to leverage Opus’ global expertise.

Over the past year during the procurement stage, the team has worked diligently under Blake’s leadership providing support as needed during the development of specifications and contract documentation, technical evaluations and developing the reference case. The deadlines on these types of P3 projects as they move through the procurement process can be extremely unpredictable and require tremendous bursts of effort in short periods as well as sustained periods. This cannot be accomplished without strong discipline, leadership and teamwork.

• Company Credit Management Team of Lynda Devine, Company Management; Karen Wilkinson, Doncaster; Luisa Pingyin, Christchurch; Sharon Hope, Brisbane; Jo Beddows, Auckland; Colin Widdis, Wellington; Latoya Lake, Doncaster; Louise Hilton, Doncaster; Toa Tauheluhelu, Hamilton; John Wheatley, Sydney; Yvonne Vaneveld, Auckland; and Susan Breen, Fredericton

2009 was a year that presented a major risk from cash flow shortfalls. The difficult economic conditions required the company Credit Management team to work in conjunction with Project Managers and Business Managers.   

The team successfully reduced the total receivables.  This result was from both increased commercial focus and also from quiet collaboration of Lynda Devine and her team to stem the tide of defaults at an early stage and persist with the hard issues.

• Company Payroll Team, New Zealand of Lesley Brown, Karen Phillips, Samantha Shaw, Company Management; and Glenda Hannagan, Dunedin

The payroll team have worked exceptionally hard to consolidate the payroll functions in Australia, Canada and UK.  This has been achieved in a little over 12 months.  This achievement has required a huge amount of commitment as they are not only changing payroll systems they are also working with the different employment legislation for each country and/or state. The other complicating factor in this process is the time zone issues.

From the end user point of view, the process has been seamless.   This is all credit to the dedication of the payroll team.

There has been an enormous amount of behind the scenes work to get us where we are today in terms of payroll.  In addition to this, they are still providing huge support to the NZ payroll administrators.