Overview

An Australian Government Business Enterprise is delivering one of the nation's largest pumped hydro projects, creating critical clean-energy infrastructure and a major source of renewable generation.

Background

The project required a complex network of service and emergency access tunnels and a new underground transformer hall, delivered using drill-and-blast methodology. However, the scale and complexity of the works created significant schedule pressure, contributing to construction delays and cost escalation.

Action taken and solution

To support the client in replanning and controlling the revised drill-and-blast schedule, the Last Planner Methodology (a form of Lean Pull Production Planning) was introduced as a production control mechanism. This enabled crews to align daily execution with the revised blast plan while reducing the risk of further cost escalation. The approach was reinforced through integrated visual daily management boards that tracked drill-and-blast performance, highlighted deviations from plan, and identified containment actions and countermeasures for construction and related services teams to address in order to continue to meet planned blasts.