154 www. bus- ex. com NOVEMBER 09

Golding Contractors NOVEMBER 09 www. bus- ex. com 155 F ounded in 1942 by Cyril Golding in Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, Golding Contractors began as a one- man operation in the logging industry during World War II with a truck and a bulldozer. He toiled many hours constructing dams and minor earthworks to build up his company and add workers. Eventually, part of his crew worked on mining sites, while the other part constructed bridges and civil projects. The workforce grew to 1,800, operating one of the largest privately owned earthmoving fleets in the southern hemisphere. The company was family owned until being acquired by CHAMP Private Equity in early 2008. Since May 2008 Golding has been constructing a new bridge in Mackay on the coast of Queensland. Project manager Richard Malowiecki, with 30 years' experience in civil projects, describes the scope of the $ 128 million Forgan Bridge Replacement Project. " We're building a new bridge alongside the current bridge," he says. " When complete we will switch traffic over to the new bridge, demolish the old bridge and construct another new bridge in its place. There's also another short, six- lane bridge across Barnes Creek, plus nearly a kilometer of roadwork running along Barnes Creek Road, as well as two signalized intersections at each end of the project." This is actually the third bridge on the same site; the original one built in the 1880s was hit by a ship that took out a few spans of the bridge and sank on the spot. The rest of the bridge was badly damaged by a cyclone in 1918. The second, current one was built in 1937- 38 and has reached the end of its economic life, with ongoing maintenance being impractical. Because it's adjacent to the center of the city, planning the construction around traffic is a challenge, says Malowiecki. " Since we have to leave the current two lanes operational while we construct the new lanes, we're working in and around traffic, which makes the construction very linear and relatively lengthy. At the moment, all our office space, warehouse and storage facilities are on ' the works' side of the road, but for stage two of the job, when we move to the other side of the road, we'll have to