GHD helps Sydney Metro Northwest project arrive on time

Leading professional services company, GHD is proud to have played a key role in the new Sydney Metro Northwest, which is set to begin services on 26 May 2019.

Sydney Metro Northwest is the first stage of Sydney Metro, Australia’s biggest public transport infrastructure project. Sydney Metro Northwest is set to be the first fully-automated metro rail system in Australia.

The delivery of this 36 kilometre rail system involved both greenfield and brownfield work. The greenfield work includes a double track railway, eight new stations and associated station precinct works.

GHD, in a joint venture with Systra, delivered Independent Certifier services for the Operations, Trains and Systems (OTS) portion of the project.

“This is a landmark project for New South Wales and Australia, and we’re very proud to have contributed to its success,” said GHD’s Market Leader Transportation, Mikel Alonso. “By combining a proactive and collaborative philosophy with a risk-based systems approach, we’ve provided timely, efficient and transparent certification results for the project’s benefit.”

As Independent Certifier reporting to clients Transport for NSW and Sydney Metro and the Northwest Rapid Transit consortium, the joint venture was responsible for undertaking various review, surveillance and certification activities, including certifying project plans, design packages, completion of works, test procedures, quality systems assurance, commentary on delivery program, compliance assessments and site-based surveillance.

“This was a complex project that required much more than a simplistic certification methodology,” added Monty Lang, OTS IC Contract Manager. “We deployed a risk-based, system engineering approach that focused on areas of heightened risk, was tightly integrated with the project’s systems engineering outputs, and ultimately provided transparent and traceable certification outcomes.”

“GHD’s international rail experience and broad capability combined with our local market knowledge formed a strong platform for our contribution to the project from its inception in 2014 right through to the commencement of operations,” said Mikel.

The new metro trains are scheduled to run every four minutes in the peak, and travel at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour.