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.

Primed for defence

Throughout 2023 we grew our defence team to support major investment in manufacturing and maintenance facilities for the Australian Navy’s new nuclear submarines, and surface fleet.

Australia has not owned and operated nuclear powered vessels to date, presenting new social and stakeholder consultation, regulatory and licensing challenges. We have provided advice and guidance on the regulatory and licencing requirements.

Local capability is boosted by our ability to draw on decades of defence expertise in the UK, including design and management of nuclear submarine facilities.

In 2023 our defence team delivered upgrades to the HMS Cresswell naval training base and Borneo Barracks army base, both on the east coast of Australia. Local capability for these and future projects is boosted by our ability to draw on decades of defence expertise in the UK, including design and management of nuclear submarine facilities, airfields, army bases and support infrastructure.

In 2023 the Australian Defence Infrastructure Panel selected us, in joint venture with consultant Currie & Brown, to provide project management and business case services for a portfolio of defence infrastructure investments. The six-year appointment is under the Department for Defence Project Management & Contract Administration Panel. It allows other departments and agencies to procure our services under ‘whole of Australian government’ arrangements.

Landmark buildings

Our buildings engineers have been sought out for many of the region’s landmark structures over the years. In Australia, work on the iconic New Sydney Fish Market reached a milestone at the end of 2023, with piling and site preparation works completed, ready for erection of the building structure. The project will provide a modern trading floor, viewing galleries, restaurants and shops to better meet the needs of fishers, buyers and tourists.

When the New South Wales government asked us to help create a bold new building to rehouse top tourist destination Sydney Fish Market as the catalyst for a multimillion-dollar regeneration of the area, we responded with an innovative and green approach.

30,000 seats in the new Te Kaha arena for Canterbury, New Zealand

And we were excited to see construction start on Te Kaha, Canterbury Multi-Use Arena, on New Zealand’s South Island. Canterbury was devastated by an earthquake in September 2010, and the 30,000-seat arena is a major part of the city’s programme of recovery and regeneration. We are engineering designer, working with architects Populous and Warren & Mahoney.

The scale of the Te Kaha project led to us expanding our footprint in the market and opening our first office on the South Island. The Christchurch office draws on the substantial capacity of our North Island team – and our capability elsewhere across the globe.

Our healthcare buildings team in Hong Kong completed work on several hospitals in 2023, including Hong Kong’s first proton therapy centre and a new laboratory for the Centre for Health Protection. The team has continuing work on major healthcare projects, including the redevelopment of Queen Mary Hospital and the expansion of North District Hospital.

A fast growing water portfolio

Our water business in the region spans the provision of essential infrastructure to support social and economic development, and the system upgrades and optimisation in developed economies.

For example, in Indonesia we designed the Palembang Water Treatment Plant, co-financed by the governments of Australia and Indonesia, to provide clean water to 40,000 residents in Palembang on the island of Sumatra.

40,000 Sumatran residents will get clean water from the Palembang treatment plant

Meanwhile, our New Zealand water business goes from strength to strength, with digital expertise playing an important part in our success – in particular applied to reducing carbon emissions and analysing the performance of water and wastewater systems.

In 2023 Local Government New Zealand, the national membership body for regional, territorial and unitary authorities, launched a partnership with us to deploy our digital carbon modelling solution, Moata Carbon Portal. Through the partnership, we are supporting the country’s 78 authorities to quantify embodied and operational carbon emissions, plot pathways towards net zero, and communicate with citizens.

We are supporting New Zealand’s 78 local authorities to quantify embodied and operational carbon emissions and plot pathways towards net zero.

Our network insights team is now working for utility companies including Watercare in Auckland and Wellington Water. By designing network monitoring systems, we are able to capture data on the performance of water and wastewater networks, informing operational decisions and capital investments.

We have been working for Watercare in Auckland for many years, and our monitoring of combined sewer capacity, overflow incidents and environmental water quality has helped the organisation shape a major programme.

In 2023 we completed design of the 4km long, 2.1m diameter Whenuapai to Redhills sewer tunnel, which will provide essential wastewater conveyance capacity as north west Auckland grows. Construction started in 2024. And Watercare appointed us to provide advice and design solutions for a 10-year water and wastewater network upgrade and renewal programme.

We started a five-year role with Wellington Water to monitor and model water and wastewater flows, which will inform projects to improve water and environmental quality, and boost system resilience. Innovation is an important part of the programme, focused on achieving at least 25% cost efficiency. We have already achieved a 10% improvement in the first year.