Green Square Stormwater Upgrade
City of Sydney
Context
Located close to Sydney’s airport and 3.5km from the city centre, Green Square is the focus of a 278ha inner city urban renewal project.
Transforming Sydney’s oldest industrial heartland into a modern town centre presented many challenges, the most complex and critical of them being flooding. Once a network of wetlands and creeks, when Green Square became industrialised, paved areas increased and natural drainage drastically decreased.
Flash-flooding from heavy rainfall was a constant and dangerous threat. In fact, during storms in April 2015, floodwaters reached 2.3m in the area.
When completed, Green Square will accommodate 63,000 people, living in 33,000 new homes, and provide around 21,000 permanent jobs. Therefore, the precinct could not be fully redeveloped without addressing the major flood risk.
Solution
The solution became one of Australia’s largest urban stormwater recycling schemes which centred around a new 2km stormwater drain to take floodwaters from the precinct into Botany Bay. For City of Sydney, a key achievement was routing the drain predominantly through or under Council owned property. This minimised the impact on residents, businesses, and the environment.
The Green Square Alliance were awarded the collaborative contract for this scheme. As a key member of the leadership team, Mark Simister was accountable for providing strategic leadership across the Alliance and ensuring outstanding outcomes were achieved within a constructive and collaborative culture. This included making sure MWH (now Stantec) provided resources with the right skills and mindset to the Alliance, at the right time, for efficient and effective delivery.
A new water recycling plant was established in the Green Square Infrastructure Centre to treat water from the drain so that it can be used by thousands of residents in the Green Square town centre.
The Green Square town centre, the first of its kind to be built in Sydney in over 100 years, has been awarded a 6 Star Green Star – Communities rating from the Green Building Council of Australia due to its tree-lined, low-speed streets, extra-wide footpaths, self-watering raingardens, separated cycleways, and LED street lighting.
This project won the Infrastructure Project Innovation Award at the 2019 NSW Water Awards.
In 2022, the Green Square stormwater drain project was awarded a prestigious silver medal at the International Water Association’s Project Innovation Awards held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The revitalisation of the precinct has also earned the City of Sydney an innovation and excellence award from the Property Council of Australia for government leadership.
2017
Start Date
2019
Completion Date
2
Kilometre Stormwater Drain
278
Hectare Urban Renewal Project
Partners & Consultants
Sydney Water worked in partnership with the City of Sydney’s Drying Green Alliance alongside industry partners UGL Infrastructure, Seymour Whyte Constructions, Rob Carr, WSP and RPS Group.
ADVANCING RECONCILIATION
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which our business is based, the Gamaragal and Turrbal people. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.
CONTACT
Level 12, 275 Alfred Street
North Sydney NSW 2060
Level 18, 324 Queen Street
Brisbane QLD 4000
+61 (0) 439 415 172
info@metaphic.com.au