Laurie Curran says his team is very much looking forward to working on the Cobar water treatment plan upgrade project.
Mr Curran is the managing director of Laurie Curran Water P/L, and has just won the tender to build Cobar’s new Water Treatment Plant.
Mr Curran, along with company director Stephen Smolenaars who will be in charge of the project and senior process engineer, Jack Timmins, were in Cobar last week to meet with council staff and councillors to familarise themselves with the site.
“We really appreciated the opportunity to meet with council and get a feel for the people we are working with,” Mr Curran told The Cobar Weekly.
He said many of his staff are from the country and so have an affinity for working in country towns.
Mr Curran’s Victorian-based process engineering firm, which specializes in the design and construction of water and wastewater treatment facilities, has been operating since 2001.
He estimates they currently have about 30 projects on the go.
“We’ve just finished at Crookwell and Gunning in NSW, and are also working on projects in Victoria at Numurkah and Myrtleford,” Mr Curran said.
They recently upgraded Flinders Island’s water treatment plant for TasWater and he said they are soon to begin another project for TasWater on King Island.
“Some are bigger projects than Cobar and others are smaller,” he said.
Mr Curran said he expects “the tyranny of distance” will be the biggest challenge they’ll face on the Cobar project.
“Getting people with necessary skills is important. We’ll look at the local market first and also recruit from Victoria, NSW and other places.
“We’ll be maximizing local input,” he said.
Mr Curran said construction is expected to commence in September and including the design stage, the whole project should take just under 18 months to complete.
