Fitzroy Bridge Alliance Award Submission

Fitzroy Bridge Alliance (Georgiou, BMD Group, BG&E and Main Roads WA)

2024

Writing

In early 2023, devastation swept through the Kimberley region as record-breaking floods tore through communities, homes, and vital infrastructure. Among the most significant losses was the destruction of the Fitzroy River Bridge — a critical artery on the Great Northern Highway, which links Western Australia to the Northern Territory. In an incredible effort, the Fitzroy River Bridge was designed and completed in just 10 months—six months ahead of schedule. This achievement was recognised with the Judges Award in the 2024 CCF Western Australia Earth Awards.

The Challenge

Louise Richardson and Associates was engaged to write a winning award submission for the Fitzroy Bid Alliance’s entry into the CCF Earth Awards 2024.

There were a number of challenges in pulling together this submission:

No previous involvement with the project – Louise Richardson and Associates had not worked on this project, which meant that we had to quickly familiarise ourselves with the details, scale and scope of the project
Alliance – there were four key members of the Fitzroy Bridge Alliance, each of whom needed to be involved in the preparation, review and approval of the submission
Sourcing information – information need to come from multiple sources
Technical components – this was a highly complex and technical project that needed to be distilled into a clear narrative that addressed the judging criteria
Deadline – there was a hard deadline for the delivery of the submission

The Method

The complexity of the project, time constraints and the need to pull together information from a range of different sources meant that it was critical that key team members from the Alliance were engaged in the process from the start. This was achived with an initial start up workshop, where key themes, messaging and information gaps were identified and tasks allocated.

It was also critical during this workshop to ask the right questions. Often with award submissions the team that delivered the project don’t recognise or necessarily appreciate the elements of their work that were great examples of innovation or excellence. Extracting these pearls of information is critical to preparing an award winning entry.

Continual reference back to the judging criteria, and the weighting applied to each element, ensured that the elements of the project that illustrated excellence in each category were showcased front and centre.

The Outcome

The Fitzroy Bridge Alliance took out the Judges Award for the 2024 CCF Western Australia Earth Awards.