Winning top jobs

CONSULTANT Sinclair Knight Merz are expanding thpir Pacific practice in order to meet the growing demand for quality engi neering services in a wide range of disci plines. With offices in Fiji and Papua New Guinea they are winning a growing share of the consulting market in surveying, geot echnical and environmental services through to engineering design, project management and construction supervision.

Their involvement in individual projects varies from providing advice in one disci pline only to acting as total project or con struction managers.

They attribute their success to utilising a mixture of local expertise to carrying out the majority of their project work and calling in specialists to assist and train local staff when required.

Sinclair Knight Merz are the largest Australian-based consulting practice and as such are able to supply technical back up to their Pacific offices in almost any field

and at short notice. Another factor con tributing to their increasing work load is their ability to keep pace with technology, the Fiji offices are fully equipped with hard ware and software to produce high quality output for survey plans and design draw ings providing both quality and cost-effec tive solutions for their clients within project time frames.

The Fiji practice is experiencing steady growth with recent major expansions in engineering and survey staff and the open ing of a second office in Suva to cater for an expected increase in business in the capital, especially structural engineering and environmental services. Some of the recent major projects undertaken by the firm in the Pacific include: • The Pacific Patrol Boat Project work shop and Naval headquarters buildings in Walu Bay, Suva, for the Australian Army on behalf of the Fiji Military Forces Naval Squadron. Sinclair Knight Merz carried out