No Content Set
Exception:
Website.Models.ViewModels.Components.General.Banners.BannerComponentVm

Services

Technical services and consulting solutions for clients in the property, energy, transport, water, resources, defence and government sectors.

Advisory and management consulting

RPS advisory and management consulting services for businesses and projects, including economics, due diligence, transaction advisory, ESG and more.

Communications, creative and digital

Communications, creative and digital solutions for governments and businesses including community engagement, design, research, data and software development.

Laboratories

Scientific analysis services for AgroScience, food safety, workplace exposure, environmental analysis and contaminants of concern in Europe and the UK.

Planning and approvals

Development strategy, planning and approval solutions for buildings, infrastructure, transport and city projects and investments.

Project and program management

Project management solutions for the most complex building, infrastructure, organisational change, and systems projects.

Training

Specialist training services, programs and accreditation for health, safety and risk, project management, and energy sector capability development.

Sectors

World-leading technical and consulting solutions for clients in the property, energy, transport, resources, water, defence and government sectors.

Property

Design, technical and advisory services for the property sector, including residential, commercial, retail, industrial, health, education and data centre projects.

Energy

Energy exploration, development and optimisation solutions for renewables, power and gas networks, energy storage, oil and gas and nuclear facilties.

Transport

Smart, safe and sustainable transport infrastructure development services and advice for rail, aviation, port and road clients and projects.

Defence and government services

Expertise for defence capability and infrastructure investments, security and safety projects, and information and telecommunications initatives.

Water

Discover our industry-leading strategy, design and management solutions for wastewater, groundwater, flooding, drainage and network infrastructure.

Resources

Commercial data, design advice and technical management solutions for safe and environmentally responsible resource exploration and operations.

About us

Responsibility

Services

Technical services and consulting solutions for clients in the property, energy, transport, water, resources, defence and government sectors.

explore Services
Advisory and management consulting by RPS

RPS advisory and management consulting services for businesses and projects, including economics, due diligence, transaction advisory, ESG and more.

Due diligence

Economics

Strategy and transformation

Commercial advisory

Transaction advisory

Project investment and finance

ESG consulting

Deal advisory

Explore Advisory and management consulting
Communications, creative and digital

Communications, creative and digital solutions for governments and businesses including community engagement, design, research, data and software development.

Communications and engagement

Creative, visualisation and immersive design

Social advisory and research

Data management, analytics and insights

Spatial intelligence and GIS

Software development

Explore Communications, creative and digital
Design and development

Technical and consulting services for buildings, infrastructure and cities including architecture, engineering, surveying, landscape architecture and urban design.

Architecture

Lifts and escalators

Building services engineering

Civil engineering

Fire engineering

Geotechnical engineering

Landscape architecture

Structural engineering

Surveying

Utility options and design

Urban design

Explore Design and development
Laboratories

Scientific analysis services for AgroScience, food safety, workplace exposure, environmental analysis and contaminants of concern in Europe and the UK.

AgroScience analysis

Food safety analysis

PFAS Analysis

Environmental analysis

Analysis of unknowns

Workplace exposure analysis

Explore Laboratories
Planning and approvals

Development strategy, planning and approval solutions for buildings, infrastructure, transport and city projects and investments.

Planning consultancy

Transport planning

Explore Planning and approvals
Project and program management

Project management solutions for the most complex building, infrastructure, organisational change, and systems projects.

Program management

Project management

Cost management / quantity surveying

Building consultancy

Explore Project and program management
Training

Specialist training services, programs and accreditation for health, safety and risk, project management, and energy sector capability development.

Health, safety and risk

Training: project management

Capability development and training for the energy sector

Explore Training

Sectors

World-leading technical and consulting solutions for clients in the property, energy, transport, resources, water, defence and government sectors.

explore Sectors
Property

Design, technical and advisory services for the property sector, including residential, commercial, retail, industrial, health, education and data centre projects.

Residential

Commercial and retail

Leisure and tourism

Industrial

Health and healthcare

Education

Data centres

Explore Property
Energy

Energy exploration, development and optimisation solutions for renewables, power and gas networks, energy storage, oil and gas and nuclear facilties.

Oil and gas

Renewables

Nuclear facilities

Power and gas networks

Storage

Explore Energy
Transport

Smart, safe and sustainable transport infrastructure development services and advice for rail, aviation, port and road clients and projects.

Rail

Aviation

Ports

Roads

Explore Transport
Defence and government services

Expertise for defence capability and infrastructure investments, security and safety projects, and information and telecommunications initatives.

Defence

Security and safety

Information and telecommunications

Explore Defence and government services
Water

Discover our industry-leading strategy, design and management solutions for wastewater, groundwater, flooding, drainage and network infrastructure.

Water management

Wastewater

Flooding and drainage

Groundwater

UK and Ireland regulated water asset management

Explore Water
Resources

Commercial data, design advice and technical management solutions for safe and environmentally responsible resource exploration and operations.

Mining

Waste

Explore Resources

Projects

We define, design and manage projects that create shared value to a complex, urbanising and resource-scarce world.

explore Projects

Brilliant minds finding solutions to complex problems, made easy to understand. Making complex easy.

Brilliant minds finding solutions to complex problems, made easy to understand. Making complex easy.

explore Insights

Engagement the key to unlocking Melbourne's infrastructure challenges

With a population that is expected to grow around two per cent per year over the next decade or so, Melbourne’s infrastructure requirements will soon outstrip what the city currently has to offer

06 December 2021 | 1 min read
Kate Eskdale

Asia Pacific

Australia

Melbourne

ON THIS PAGE
Contact us

For Victoria> Insights

Infrastructure Victoria has recently put forward Victoria’s Infrastructure Strategy 2021-2051 for consideration by the State Government. It contains 94 recommended projects, policies, and reforms with a combined price tag of around $100 billion.

If some elements of this strategy are to become a reality, we can assume that Melbourne will receive a substantial portion of infrastructure project energy and funding. But to hit the ground running on such a grand program of works, questions will need to be answered.

How do we accommodate our growing population without throwing established communities under the bus? How will we prioritise essential infrastructure like hospitals, schools, energy, water, and transport when we can’t feasibly deliver all these projects at the same time? How do we keep the community onboard and up-to-date in such challenging socio-economic times?

Balancing the necessity of development with community sentiment

While Infrastructure Victoria’s strategy creates a clear vision for the future of our state, it doesn’t provide a game plan for generating the social license necessary for such a large volume of projects.

When it comes to residential development, the strategy suggests reviewing existing planning regulations to increase density in established suburbs. It references Plan Melbourne’s goal of having 70% of new housing built in established suburbs by 2051.

Increasing density is often an unpopular move within established communities who may think they are losing the unique culture, aesthetics and ‘feel’ of their suburb. ’Outwards not upwards’ is also not a sustainable option for Melbourne when you consider we are already the 29th largest city in the world (geographically speaking) but house a comparatively small population of only five million people or so.

While this isn’t an insurmountable issue, we need to start thinking about the approach we will take towards communications and engagement on issues like density, and how we can adopt a longer-term social value creation approach at the start.

Melbourne-suburbs-housing-commercial.jpg

Combatting construction fatigue

Construction fatigue has well and truly set in across Melbourne, both on a smaller scale, with plenty of apartment blocks and other housing developments going up, and on a larger scale–we’re currently witnessing the most ambitious infrastructure programs the Victorian government has ever commissioned.

This is, unsurprisingly, leading to disruption in the form of things like traffic delays and construction impacts. Again, quality engagement regarding project activities and timelines can help manage community expectations while work is being done. People need to understand how various projects connect and intersect when work is happening, and the benefits that projects will deliver once they are complete.

Anyone who works in infrastructure knows the power that communities can have in putting the brakes on projects, or even having them shelved. Melburnians have spent more time in their local areas than most over the last couple of years. They are likely to be even more interested and invested in what’s going on close to home than ever before.

We need to ensure communities get a say in impact reduction and mitigation strategies for infrastructure projects if we are to keep them moving forward. They have a wealth of knowledge about the local area and what mitigations would be most effective.

Kate Eskdale

Executive Consultant - Communications and Engagement

Will we see the CBD abandoned?

While COVID-19 has certainly impacted Melbourne’s CBD in the short-term, how the pandemic will shape inner-urban land use in the future remains to be seen.

A lot of our past and current development planning has been centered around the CBD, but Victoria’s Infrastructure Strategy 2021-2051 acknowledges a potential future in which many formerly CBD-based professionals choose to remain in the suburbs, and even rural areas.

While much has been done to reinvigorate Melbourne’s CBD and shake off the ‘doughnut city’ effect (where a skew towards commercial office land use transforms the city centre into an empty ghost town outside of office hours), Melburnians have become comfortable close to home over the last two years. While lockdowns were the catalyst, a rediscovery of suburbia may prove catalytic in itself.

Other Australian cities like Brisbane have shrugged off similar concerns and proved that their CBDs are alive and well in the wake of lockdowns, so only time will tell. Understanding what it is that people love about their city and engaging them in conversation about the types of infrastructure and services that will draw them back in earnest will be vital.

Melbourne has a bright future ahead. And bold strategies like the one put forward by Infrastructure Victoria will help us to define, design and manage a more efficient, liveable, and productive city.

If we're engaging Melburnians in this vision and listening to their wants and needs, we're already halfway there.