Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific

World leading aviation

Work restarted on the world’s largest aviation project, Changi Airport Terminal 5, in 2023 and supercharged our Singapore business.

The main terminal is not so much a building as an indoor city that will handle up to 50M passengers a year. Connection to Changi’s existing terminals for multimodal transport, baggage transfer and electricity, water and communications services is being provided in tunnelled utility spines. 

The airport’s existing third runway is being extended by 1.25km to reach 4km in length, so that the largest commercial jets can land and take off. It will be served by 40km of new taxiways and aprons.

In partnership with consultants Arup and Surbana Jurong we are designing the main terminal building, satellite terminal building, ground transportation centre and primary landside roadway. And with Changi Airport Planners & Engineers we are designing the taxiways, 100 new aircraft parking stands, roadways and drainage systems, as well as power, water, gas, fuel and telecommunications connections. Each contract is a major project in its own right.

Changi T5 exemplifies the multidisciplinary breadth and depth of our business, and we are proud to support this world leading project.

Hear from Adrian Jones about Mott MacDonald's Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific performance

Road and rail on a major scale

In all transport sectors, clients seek us out for our ability to manage complexity.

Work continued throughout 2023 on many of Australia’s largest and most demanding transport projects, including Sydney Metro and Melbourne Suburban Rail Loop, which will both transform urban transit in their cities when completed.

Queensland Department of Transport & Main Roads selected us to develop the detailed business case for the Sunshine Coast public transport system.

On Singapore’s North-South Corridor, a US$5.8bn project to build 21km of tunnel and elevated viaduct, our team’s expertise has proved invaluable in finding innovative solutions to challenging ground conditions and proximity to existing structures.

The North-South Corridor (NSC) will directly connect Singapore’s northern region with the city centre. Our use of cutting-edge 3D digital design means the crucial NSC city-centre road tunnel will be safely delivered, despite a highly challenging construction environment.

We have worked on Singapore’s Thomson-East Coast Line from inception to its commissioning in late 2023. We designed tunnels and five underground stations on the latest 6.5km phase of the project. Opening is scheduled in the first half of 2024 and the line will benefit close to 1M commuters in Singapore when fully operational.

Meanwhile Hong Kong’s Central Kowloon Route, a 4.7km highway tunnel, is due to open next year. It navigates four in-service rail tunnels, passes through seven fault zones, and required temporary land reclamation where the tunnel passes close to the shoreline.

Energy transformation

Multidisciplinary, multi-sector advisory, design and management skills also characterise our role on – and our success in winning – six new pumped hydropower storage projects in 2023.

60 years of experience in pumped hydro

Pumped hydro combines energy, geotechnical, tunnelling and water engineering. Our heritage in this fast growing renewable energy discipline goes back 60 years, with the 250MW Kidston pumped hydropower storage project in North Queensland showcasing our capabilities today. It is part of an integrated renewable energy system: surplus power from a neighbouring solar array is stored by pumping water from a lower to an upper reservoir. Releasing the stored water through turbines generates electricity to meet peaks in demand.

We are leading the way on pumped storage with a pioneering project that is repurposing a redundant gold mine in Queensland – including the development of new digital tools to minimise lifetime carbon.

Both the Kidston reservoirs are disused gold mines. A similar repurposing of abandoned infrastructure is planned at the Muswellbrook pumped hydro energy storage project in New South Wales: a former coalmine will be rehabilitated as the project’s lower reservoir, with a 2km tunnel conveying water to the upper reservoir atop Bells Mountain. We are developing the reference design for the project owner, Muswellbrook Pumped Hydro.

In February 2023 we acquired Engevity, a strategic advisory consultancy specialising in energy, climate and infrastructure policy and regulation. Engevity also brought climate software complementing our extensive digital tools that enables clients to better assess and quantify climate risks and opportunities.

We are helping our clients to develop their climate strategies by modelling physical impacts and science based pathways to net zero.

Our enhanced offering is already accelerating our growth in sustainable and renewable projects. We are playing a greater role in shaping markets and operating environments to support new projects and technologies. And we are helping our clients to develop their climate strategies by modelling physical impacts and science based pathways to net zero.

There is huge renewable energy potential across the Asia Pacific region. Singapore’s soaring demand for renewable energy is leading to the world’s largest proposed renewable energy import projects, using subsea cables, on which we’re taking a leading role.

We have advisory and design roles on hydropower projects in Indonesia. In Malaysia we started work on the hydropower masterplan for the state of Sabah, which is embarking on a programme to transition from predominantly fossil fuels to renewables by 2040. The masterplan underscores our capability in providing strategic support to clients seeking to develop renewable energy infrastructure.

We continue to expand our range of design services on offshore wind projects in Korea, Taiwan and Japan. In the last year, we have been appointed by Korean and Japanese investors to help them enter the renewable energy markets in Australia, Europe, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.