Reinforced Earth is delivering innovative solutions that will satisfy community needs for decades to come. Riccardo Musella, Managing Director touches on why and how the company is supporting its communities on a daily basis.
Community is a word that’s intrinsic to infrastructure development. Nearly every single infrastructure project is built to benefit and/or impacts local communities in some way.
Well known for its expertise in geotechnical engineering solutions such as precast, rockfall nets and barriers, geosynthetics and reinforced soils structures, Reinforced Earth doesn’t shy away from its grounded community roots.
Riccardo Musella, Reinforced Earth Managing Director, says community is not only something close to his heart, but also a foundational aspect that’s supported the growth of the company across Australia.
“For our team, it is important that we are an integral part of the communities in which we operate, contributing to the local economy, providing local jobs and enhancing the social fabric of the area,” he says.
A lot of Reinforced Earth’s projects go a long way towards creating new spaces for communities.
One such example is its work on the Drysdale Bypass in Victoria. The completed six-kilometre bypass between Jetty Road and Whitcombes Road is helping to reduce congestion and increase safety on the Bellarine Peninsula. Reinforced Earth was tasked with providing full height panels and working with the contractor to deliver a retaining wall face for a pedestrian underpass that was interesting and thought-provoking for the young community.
After extensive community feedback and consultation, local school students played a crucial role in the final design, by choosing the inspirational words now etched into the wall.
The uplifting words cast into the walls, include “believe and achieve”, “dream”, “inspire”, “be yourself”, “smile”, and “be the difference”, and were chosen by students from St Thomas Primary School, St Ignatius College and Bellarine Secondary College.
Musella says it’s projects such as this that ensure that transport infrastructure is not just functional but also visually appealing, while providing an opportunity to establish a strong sense of place and community ownership.
Another example is Reinforced Earth’s works on the Leach Highway Interchange in Western Australia. Reinforced Earth’s TerraTilt precast concrete walls, delivered as part of these works, have helped to increase the safety and reduce congestion along the connection, which was one of Perth’s most dangerous and second busiest intersections, used by 50,000 vehicles daily.
The TerraTilt design is focused on fast and easy application and erection, helping to minimise delays and other impacts on local traffic around the project.
Another notable project was Reinforced Earth’s works on the Mitchell freeway Extension, specifically the Butler Boulevard underpass. Local Aboriginal artists Nathan Corunna and Darren Hutchens were engaged to paint murals over the top of precast elements. These murals depicted the lakes and swamps in the boodja (land) between Yanchep and Joondalup in Western Australia. This mural is known as Booladarlung Bidi (Pelican tracks).
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Such engagement is a big focus of Reinforced Earth’s projects, as Musella explains.
“We have solutions that deal with the mitigation of noise, that aim to not deter from the natural environment and also limit the carbon footprint,” he says. “Our solutions have been developed to cater for geotechnical constraints and we can customise our designs and solutions to respond to what the community desires.
“A big focus of ours is also maximising space for the local community. We’ve had projects where we’ve looked at changing the route to enable the provision of more public space. It’s a really good feeling to be able to drive past one of our projects and know we contributed.”
The selection of cheaper processes and materials is also a big consideration, leading to reduced associated costs for the taxpayer for larger infrastructure works. Reinforced Earth also prioritises the use of local material suppliers wherever possible.
Musella says there’s a detectable sense of pride each time the team completes a community-focused project.
“We feel as though we are an integral part of the community. After all, about 90 per cent of the work that we do is done for the community,” he says.
“It’s not just building a bridge or a retaining wall, it’s about designing our projects in a way that can benefit not only local people, but also local wildlife. We know how to design our project to be as sustainable and community friendly as possible.”
Local inside and out
Despite having sites across 40 different countries, Reinforced Earth is still firmly grounded in Australia.
Complementing its engineering offices nationwide, Reinforced Earth also owns and operates precast manufacturing sites in key regional areas in Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales, alongside a site in Perth. Consistent across these regional locations is a passion for seeking out local employees and supporting community-based organisations.
Reinforced Earth is actively engaged and supporting a number of local sporting clubs, as part of its focus on giving back to country areas in Australia. And it is also giving local employees their first entry into the sector.
“You don’t need to live in the city to work for a multi-national engineering company. In our regional areas we’ve been focusing on working closely with local shires and the local labour agency to promote ourselves to prospective employees, enabling people in regional Australia to stay, live and work in their local area,” Musella says.
“We give people the opportunity to come in with little experience and we will train them up.
“Training is a big focus for all our employees; We have a buddy system where we also help to mentor new employees at each of our regional sites, and we’ve been very successful with that.”
Musella says local employees in regional areas have unique local knowledge and are an essential tool in the company’s focus on the community.
“In our regional locations, starting with the factory manager, we look to build our team around them with people from the area. It’s key for us to support the communities in which we operate by employing and training local people, bringing new skills and jobs to regional areas.
This article was originally published in the September edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.
