It is great to see the upgrade of Gawler Place by the City of Adelaide fully operational in time for the pre and post-Christmas shopping period.
Around 25,000 people move between North Terrace and Grenfell Street via Gawler Place every day. It is a busy strip in the heart of the Rundle Mall Precinct where people shop, do business, walk, cycle and make deliveries/pickups.
Undertaking construction projects in such a busy and complex environment like Gawler Place required careful management to ensure that shops and businesses continued to operate and that people still used and visited Gawler Place during construction works.
During the construction process, we ran an article about our extensive engagement work for this project. It is worth revisiting some of the fundamental elements of this engagement that have made the construction process a success:
- Project managers, Procure PM, approached engagement as a cornerstone of the construction process, bringing an attitude of responsibility and accountability by the project team to stakeholders and the community.
- URPS’ engagement team was intimately involved from the start of the project, gathering information from stakeholders to help understand how Gawler Place ticks and using it to help plan the construction program.
- As construction was underway, URPS constantly communicated with over 500 individuals and the wider community, making sure that people were aware of what was going on and knew where to go with any issues, concerns or questions. All questions and complaints were managed in an expeditious and accountable way that valued stakeholders. Consultation with stakeholders was also undertaken one-on-one to communicate and negotiate road/laneway closures and access restrictions to car parking and buildings.
The engagement effort has been fundamental to delivering this major infrastructure upgrade on time while keeping Gawler Place open for business.
We’d love to talk with you further about our skills in helping achieve similar success for your next infrastructure upgrade.
