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Darren Mort is president – infrastructure global business unit at Bechtel

In July, construction of Australia’s “greenfield” Western Sydney International (WSI) airport was completed almost seven months early and within its AU$5.3bn (£2.5bn) budget.

With the Australian Government as the client for the scheme via specially created company Western Sydney Airport Corporation, WSI is widely seen as a major economic catalyst, expected to deliver an estimated A$20bn (£9.6bn) of economic impact by 2060, and emblematic of the aviation sector’s post-pandemic recovery.

WSI is positioned as a paradigm-shifting scheme. The airport is designed for energy efficiency and sustainable aviation fuel readiness, is committing to Scope 1 and 2 net-zero emissions by 2050 and will address biodiversity impacts through offsets and conservation zones. WSI’s design and plans also included commitments to reduce construction and operational impacts on local air quality and noise.

Zaha Hadid Architects and Cox Architecture collaborated on the concept design for the terminal, whose horizontal shape was informed by the low-lying Cumberland Plain savannah region west of Sydney. Woods Bagot was responsible for WSI’s design and delivery, and Multiplex secured the contract for WSI’s construction, with engineering expertise provided by Arup.

Bechtel was the delivery partner and project management consultant, responsible for managing the project’s design and construction, including contractor procurement, budget management and scheduling. It oversaw the delivery of construction packages including the terminal, runway and airfield.

Partnering for delivery

For Bechtel infrastructure global business unit president Darren Mort, the scheme demonstrates the challenges and achievements of large-scale, transformative megaprojects.

“It’s been a long journey. We started back at the development phase in 2017 to engage the supply chain, get aligned with the client – the Australian Government – and deliver the project for the state of New South Wales. There’s still work to do. We’ve got to support the client to get WSI into airport operation in 2026, but to achieve construction completion the way we did, and for that to be seven months early and within budget is unusual in the aviation new build sector.”

Mort says “the principle of collaboration and understanding roles and who’s bringing what to the table” was key to WSI’s smooth delivery.

“Delivery models are the heart of what we do. It’s also about establishing clearly defined accountabilities, responsibilities and roles. You can’t have an effective contractual framework or regime without having the appropriate organisation and role definition that go with it. The key to the commercial and contractual framework is incentive models. Those incentives can be positive, or they can be about who allocates, who carries a certain risk and therefore has negative consequences if they’re not able to perform against them.”

Scope definition, getting the baseline established early on, having a clear vision of what needs to be delivered and then being committed to that vision and mission, are really important

On the WSI project, Bechtel identified six major work packages that best suited the local supply chain or the regional and national supply chain, he says. They were: early earthworks, bulk earthworks, runway pavement and airside civils, terminal complex, landside facilities, along with the experience centre and site office.

The packaging strategy was particularly important because “a greenfield airport has not been delivered in Australia for more than 40 years, so there were elements of expertise that weren’t there at the beginning,” says Mort.

“Putting in place the right contractual framework meant we knew and had confidence that each package contractor had the capacity and capability to deliver with the right incentive regime. Our role as a delivery partner is to knit all those pieces together. What that requires is a clear definition of the interfaces, the coordination aspects and how all these tie together to create an operational and integrated airport facility.”

Mort indicates that the well-judged delivery of airport schemes like WSI should go some way to appeasing negative views of air travel – as witnessed by the recent backlash on airport expansions in the UK. And he notes that there are two key points to make here.

“One is about the value and impact of aviation development, and the second is about how we do that responsibly. From our experience globally, and we’ve delivered more than 200 airports around the world, they are true economic engines.”

In terms of responsible delivery, he notes: “This is not about gold plating and the reason I mention that is not just from a cost perspective, but one of the biggest drivers of emissions and impacts on construction projects is just the sheer quantities of materials. How much concrete do we need? How much rock? How much dirt?”

Infrastructure drivers

Developments in the airport sector are echoed across related infrastructure categories, Mort says.

“If you look at the dynamics of population growth and urbanisation, we’ve already talked about aviation, but what that also means is that we need other forms of efficient, high-capacity, high-quality connectivity between communities.”

He believes inter-city rail, or in-city rail such as metro expansions, will be key to this connectivity; meanwhile Bechtel is eyeing opportunities for high speed rail, particularly in the US. In May, it published a report on this: High Speed Rail in the US – The Mega Project Delivery Perspective.

Enablers outlined in the report include strong political, public and community support, sustainable long-term funding, a skilled and future-ready workforce, advanced technology and a resilient, domestic supply chain capable of scaling with demand. But these are equally applicable to another area identified for growth by Bechtel – the energy transition, says Mort.

“If you look at energy demand growth, a lot of that will come from data centres and AI, but that’s probably about half of the make-up. The other half is increasing baseload from more electric cars, more consumption by transport and industry.

Growth in energy storage is expected in line with the transition, he says, noting that last October saw the UK government announce a “cap and floor” scheme to incentivise investment in long-duration energy storage, including pumped hydro projects.

The scheme is designed to remove barriers for large scale projects to secure multi-billion pound new capital investment. It will support the first ‘super batteries’ and other storage technology in 40 years to be built in Great Britain.

“We’re seeing a big demand for and opportunity for large pumped storage hydro schemes,” he says. “What we need to see, though, is a little more support in terms of what that cap and floor looks like, what the permitting regime is. These are big, complex projects.

They need to be under the right scrutiny and diligence, but it’s important to make sure that system is efficient in the UK to enable those projects to move forward.”

Clear vision

Blockers notwithstanding, overall, the UK government’s ethos on major infrastructure projects is welcomed, he says.

“There’s a recognition of the value and impact that infrastructure can have. But I think there’s a recognition that it can, should and needs to be delivered more efficiently and effectively here in the UK, and we’re ready to support that.”

Mort, who joined Bechtel as a graduate 25 years ago and has worked on major projects throughout the world since, is unequivocal on what ensures major projects’ success.

“Scope definition, getting the baseline established early on, having a clear vision of what needs to be delivered and then being committed to that vision and mission, are really important. And then I think it’s back to where we began, which is around the right delivery structures and having a fit-for-purpose customer organisation that is focused and engaging the best in the supply chain and the industry in a way that is driven by the right incentives, the right structure and the right delivery focus.”

Those factors ensured the smooth delivery of WSI in Australia, Mort notes, but he concludes: “I think you can take those to almost any major project around the world, and if those things are all effectively implemented, you generally get a good outcome.”

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