Liberty Industrial was engaged by BHP’s client McConnell Dowell to decommission, disassemble and dispose of the existing wharf and ship loader associated with the Shiploader and Berth 2 Replacement (SABR) project. Liberty Industrial liaised with BHP and McConnell Dowell for an extensive 4-months of engineering and planning phase. A small percentage of the wharf and ship loader of approximately 1500t was processed locally at the Half Tide Tug Harbour located near the berth, with the remaining majority of 5000t shipped to the Australian Marine Complex, a secondary processing area located in Henderson, Western Australia, via a Heavy Lift Vessel which sailed more than 3070 Nautical miles.

• North Queensland’s cyclone season extended between November-March each year, and there was a strict timeline for project completion.
• Our team identified several key project challenges, including the limited availability of Heavy Lift Vessels and jack-up barges; and the over-water location of the berth and ship loader, which presented an unforgiving environment that required several HSEQ parameters to be taken into consideration.
• The disassembly works was carried out close to several other live coal-loading assets that was key to the Queensland economy.
• Disassembly and disposal activities were scheduled to be completed within a strict berth shutdown period. With two key processing areas – one in Queensland and one in Western Australia, active stakeholder management that involved the state governments was critical.