Director Health and Safety | North East Link Project

Marko has been influential in shaping the safety strategies on major transport construction projects over the last decade.

Following an incident where a worker cut through a live 2.2KV power cable (they fortunately walked away unharmed), Marko used this as a catalyst to create a series of requirements to manage work around underground services.

Determined to implement controls that were consistent across all construction companies and improved the level of safety, through ICAM investigation, Marko reviewed all previous incidents involving striking of underground services. Further to this, the permit systems used by all construction companies were reviewed to identify minimum requirements.

Marko, with the assistance of the MTIA safety team, worked with the construction companies to discuss the common trends out of the ICAM investigation and then facilitated conversations to create new minimum requirements for permits and working in proximity to underground services.

Since the implementation of the new minimum requirements and improved permit system, there has been a significant reduction in service strikes. Additionally, by sharing the common trends from recent incidents, contractors are now completing permits with more rigour and greater resourcing.