Introducing Bligh Tanner’s Newest Director – Cameron Riach
Cameron Riach was recently appointed as a Director of Bligh Tanner, driving a renewed culture of quality and service into the civil team.
What drew you to Bligh Tanner?
I was attracted to Bligh Tanner because of the strong focus on the delivery of high quality work and high value outcomes for clients on interesting and challenging projects, which was a culture that strongly aligned with my personal principles.
How do you feel Bligh Tanner sizes up against some of the larger engineering firms?
Although we’re not a large consultancy, our expertise is recognised across the industry and this enables us to work with major developers and contractors on projects of national and international significance. I think what really sets us apart is our degree of experience and thorough approach to each project. We’ve been described as the ‘engineers that think’ – we always consider every aspect of the project from the outset including identifying any potential risks and understanding what our clients really want.
What’s your focus for 2014?
The focus for 2014 will be on large-scale road and rail infrastructure projects. We have already had success in providing technical reviews and advice to major contractors during the bid phases of some large-scale civil projects. This approach assists the contractors tendering for the works to better understand the engineering issues and potential risks, and to make the appropriate provisions within their submissions which will ultimately lead to better built outcomes and savings on construction costs.
What are some of your career highlights?
I’ve worked on a number of interesting and significant projects throughout my 24 year career, from the first wetland stormwater treatment system in Great Britain to one of Europe’s largest urban regeneration projects– Ravenscraig in Scotland. Ravenscraig will be Scotland’s first new town in over 50 years. The first stage of the project, for which I was responsible for the technical design, was about 20 million GBP construction cost. Overall project costs were anticipated to be 1 billion GBP in 2007, with a project development program exceeding 20 years.
More recently, at Bligh Tanner, I was involved in the Tennyson Reach Parkland project which has been very well received by the community. This is probably the first project I have completed that I have been able to walk round and enjoy with my family.
You’re from Glasgow in Scotland, how does living and working in Brisbane compare?
The engineering principles are the same, but there are design differences driven by the local geology, climate and construction methods. The biggest difference is getting up every morning and going to work in the sunshine. However in saying that, Australia’s stormwater drainage systems are a lot bigger than the UK as rainfalls are so much more intense here!
