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Stakeholder engagement for unconventional railway track design

A proposed configuration of arrival routes for trains on an existing site with very limited space (due to existing unmovable infrastructure) required a track design that did not fully comply with the RailCorp standards. The project therefore had a requirement to demonstrate that it was safe (as required by the NSW rail safety regulation) and fit for purpose.

There were a number of stakeholders (the users of the railway, neighbouring landowners, the owners of Port Kembla Coal Terminal (PKCT), NSW Ports, the infrastructure maintainers, rolling stock and track experts, the terminal operators, the local council, RailCorp, and others), with various (and sometimes competing) objectives and agenda.

Broadleaf facilitated a risk workshop to examine the issues arising from the design, including the requirement to demonstrate its safety. This workshop brought together all of the main stakeholders into a forum where all were given an opportunity to raise their particular issues. Expectations of all stakeholders were recorded and all in the workshop made the effort to meet them.

In this way, Broadleaf provided a formalised process that logically examined the design and the issues with independence and a sense of fairness and equality. Stakeholders were able to communicate with a frankness that had been absent until the workshop and great progress was made.

Client:
Port Kembla Coal Terminal, PKCT Upgrade Project
Date:
August to November 2013
Sector:
Mining and minerals processing
Rail
Services included:
Stakeholders
Risk assessment