BT stays on track with this over size recovery program which was to recover 10 x 23M (L) rail wagons from a recent freight train derailment enroute from Perth to Adelaide. The recent huge rains in remote and central Australia this winter season has played havoc with the East west rail corridors, in this specific instance the severe rains and flood waters had washed away a huge section of the main ballast supporting the railway lines. On a very dark lonely evening the East bound freight train toppled over with a minimum of ten PBYX wagons coming to rest on their sides fully consolidated with freight. The initial recovery of positioning the wagons safely away from the freshly repaired rail network and the relocation of the in transit freight was performed by the rail operator as you would expect.

However the recovery of the PBYX wagons was a far more difficult and extremely optimistic recovery program. BT’s project team worked extremely close with the insurer, loss adjustors, infrastructure owners, statutory authorities and EDI Downer direct the repairer.  Many weeks of complex negotiations and planning all represent the basis of this remote activity way out in the remote outback of South Australia where a small but talented team was supported by flexible coordination, complex solutions and exact planning which saw the mutual involvement of the SA Power network, SA Police, ARTC and McMahon Services all working within this very successful recovery program.

BT understand that in the mobilisation process of most major projects inefficiencies creep into the formats which can see the task run off the tracks in terms of delivery and cost—the experience of the BT project team demonstrates that planning and understanding how to focus on the real operational activities and the physical in-field events that arise can all be turned to the project advantage. Even right at the last minute when the rail owners ARTC changed the operating parameters with the OSOM permits of in-transit crossing of the rail lines by including expensive rail supervision on both empty travel and consolidated trailing equipment (8x line floats) traveling between the recovery site near remote  Tarcoola  to and from the Stuart Highway. The initial lead team having to cut their way through property fencing and creating temporary gates within the same properties in order to negotiate a safe passage around a number of limited access cattle grids so that these oversize vehicles could safely travel on these remote roads towards their end destination in Port Augusta.

Around the camp fire at night after a long hard day working in the harsh Ochre coloured outback is a refreshing place to reflect on the activities of the day and an opportunity to enjoy the peace and quiet of the bright moon lit night with nothing but the flickering flames of the camp fire dancing about in the shadows of the remote darkness. This is the time and place to reflect on the bush hospitality—it reminds us when men were real men sitting around a camp fire enjoying bush stories, reflecting on each other’s past wild activities of that time when they were much younger men.

Then each morning back to the crane and repositioning equipment for load consolidation until they are all uplifted and then the site demobilisation can start the close out of the 14-day-activity. This task required absolute commitment from all within the team to carry it off without incident and maintain the rigid distribution regime established to ensure that the cost of delivery was captured and achieved on target. Projects like this are very much at the mercy of the elements as rain would spell disaster in trying to travel on these remote roads, additionally high winds also have a huge effect on the load consolidation in terms of the cranage on site but also for the in-transit vehicle carrying these huge PBYX wagons being at 5.2M high and 23M long they just like a sail and capture the slightest breeze and could easily be blown over.

The precision required to ensure that these consignments travelled safely to and from site is no accident, fore at BT we take all consolidations seriously.  BT received a range of accolades in terms of the on-time delivery, our drivers‘ willingness to assist the infield personnel on site, compliance to fatigue regulations and importantly no damage or in-transit incidents. Well done to our Drivers, Contractors, Pilots, in-field Services, Operations and Compliance teams for a job extremely well done with proactive advance communications to all parties involved. Simple projects don’t just happen without preplanning, process and systems being adhered to and I’m pleased to say this was not a simple project—but we stayed on track and delivered.