Connect - 8 October 2021
Message from the Acting Chief Executive
View transcript
Hello.
For DIT Connect this week I'd like to tell you about 83 Pirie Street. For those people that are working in the city, you'll have seen how quickly the building is going up. I'd like to introduce you to Cameron Macleod, who is the project manager for the building fit out. Hi Cam.
Thanks very much, Jude. Our new home at 83 Pirie Street will be 10 levels in a 21-storey building, including ground floor lobby and three floors of car parking. The building is targeting six-star green star ratings for both design and as-built and interiors, which is world leadership in sustainable building design.
The building will have all the wellness features you'd expect of a modern and contemporary office, with plenty of natural light, excellent outside air circulation, low to zero-emission building materials and an abundance of informal and breakout meeting spaces to promote and encourage collaborative working. Your feedback has been invaluable in shaping our new workplace.
Thanks Cam, that's very informative.
The department will be on levels 4 to 13 in the new building and the colour scheme will be based on coast, forest, desert and river lake. There'll be indigenous artwork linked to the regions across the floor and we'll also be showcasing our business and major projects that we've undertaken. All floors will be open plan and they'll have the same layout.
There'll be a lot of breakout rooms as well as many meeting rooms of various sizes. There will actually be 60 more meeting rooms than there is in Flinders Street, Roma Mitchell House and Grenfell Street at the moment. The meeting rooms will have bookable systems and as well have up-to-date AV and standardised ICT equipment.
The reception floor will be on Level 9 and there will be a large meeting room to house industry briefings training sessions and large directorate meetings.
There will also be an innovation hub with state of the art equipment and breakout areas. All workstations will be sit-stand and they'll be set up to enable individual as well as collaborative working.
We'll also set up flexible working in the form of villages and neighborhoods and all workstations will be established to allow physical distancing. All staff will have access to a personal locker and there will be fantastic end of trip facilities.
The kitchen is a cafe-style layout with lots of lights and seating - somewhere you can have a casual meeting.
I'm personally looking forward to the new building and having all city staff based in the same location. There will be a Lunchbox Session on the 27th of October. We'll share some more information and also enable you to ask some questions. Thanks so much for your time today.
West Beach boat ramp upgrade
Being National Safe Boating Week, the timing could not have been better for the official launch of construction on the West Beach Boat Ramp Upgrade. It also coincides with a period having the least tidal variations, and expectations of lower swells and calmer seas as we leave winter behind.
This $4.9 million project, expected to be finished in December, will provide better and safer access for recreational fishers and boaters as well as for emergency sea rescue operations, as the West Beach ramp is the main launch facility for the SA Police Sea Rescue and the SA Sea Rescue Squadron.
The project includes extension of the ramp, replacement of the ramp surface, inner northern breakwater works for improved protection as well as maintenance and remediation of steel pilings.
Congratulations to the Project and Community Engagement teams which have collaborated seamlessly to get the project under way.
Adelaide Metro website accreditation
A lot of work goes into making our public transport system accessible, and that all starts with the window to the network; the Adelaide Metro website.
It’s pleasing to note that the site has been officially accredited by Vision Australia as meeting Level AA Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, after the implementation of solutions including enhanced navigation, colour contrast, alternate text and use of simple language.
The SAPTA web content team has done a great job in ensuring the site is usable for people with vision impairment, other disabilities and limited literacy rates.
Kate Potter, Content Development Lead and Manish Pillewar, Business Analyst.
Influence on safety
The Transport Project Delivery Division recently launched a Safety Influencers Group with safety leaders and champions from across the transport construction industry.
Group meetings will be ongoing to seek opportunities for our contractors to contribute to the Department’s Minimum Safety Construction Safety Expectations to further standardise safety controls across projects, identify new safety technologies and innovations, and share safety information and experiences that benefit everyone in the field.
We should feel proud of the leadership demonstrated by our Department and our contractors when it comes to workplace safety, especially during this National Safe Work Month, with its theme: think safe. work safe. be safe.
Executive Director, Jon Whelan addressing the group
QR codes on public transport
Mandatory QR code check-ins are a very important part of the overall COVID response strategy, giving contact tracers a chance to get ahead of the virus if we have an outbreak.
Our teams have done well to overcome initial implementation challenges on our buses, trams and trains, with bigger QR codes being well distributed, as shown by the photograph inside a bus below.
Vigilance and rigorously following health advice remain constants in our effort to keep COVID-19 under control in South Australia as vaccination rates encouragingly increase. Thank you for playing your part.
Environmental preservation
Letters of thanks are always nice, but one recently received by our Granite Island contractor, McConnell Dowell, is a little bitter sweet.
While acknowledging the excellent assistance and special access received by members of Birdlife SA to fence off and install signage for protection of a pair of nesting hooded plovers within the worksite, the letter also brought news of the nest’s demise due to seagull attack. The good news is that the birds are preparing a new nest.
The Causeway project is progressing well and remains on schedule for completion by January 22.
Staff spotlight is on …
Avonia Morrison started her career with what was then the Highways Department in 1988 and has been a part of, and witness to, a vast number of major projects and departmental achievements.
Avonia has been working with Wayne Buckerfield for the past 12 years and now has retirement firmly in her sights and many great memories, “… it’s the people. It’s been good.”
Friday Flashback
Today’s Flashback Friday shows part of the Esplanade at Semaphore in 1930, with some of the foreshore reserve in the foreground. Other foreground buildings are associated with the foreshore amusement park.
SLSA B 5541/4
If you have any comments, suggestions, questions or concerns, please email them to telltony@sa.gov.au.