National infrastructure award for PoMC channel project

The project prevailed over Sydney’s $1.8bn desalination plant, Brisbane’s $3bn Clem Jones Tunnel and the Melbourne Convention Centre.

"We're all cock-a-hoop here," a port spokesman said this morning.

Conducted by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, the event saw channel deepening become the first non-public-private-partnership to win the prestigious award.

"The Port of Melbourne Corporation and its partners — Royal Boskalis, Cardno, Minter Ellison, GHD and Sinclair Knight Merz — are to be commended for their work on this nation-building project," IPA executive director Brendan Lyon said. 

Asked what set the project apart from the other finalists, the port's channel deepening project executive general manager, Nick Easy, said it had been a very complex undertaking — one completed successfully in an alliance with dredging firm Boskalis and under, the port believed, the strictest environmental guidelines yet seen.