Twenty high school students from across WA have toured the new METRONET Alkimos Station site as part of the week-long Indigenous Australian Engineering School (IAES) program hosted by Curtin University on behalf of Engineering Aid Australia.
In its 25th year, the IAES collaborates with construction projects to enable students to explore career pathways through site visits that translate classroom learnings into real-life projects.
During the Alkimos Station site visit, students viewed the huge retaining walls at different stages of construction. Engineers from CPB Contractors explained how the walls are constructed and showed the students detailed 3D plans generated by state-of-the-art software to help them contextualise the role of the walls in the station’s overall design.
Walking where the rail line will be constructed, students learned about solutions to various engineering challenges, from laying strong foundations and safely shifting tonnes of earth through to reworking the complex timetabling involved in managing the many trades and phases of the project.
Engineers also provided valuable insight into what it’s like to be an engineer - explaining the choices they’ve had in their careers, the opportunities to work overseas, the excitement of delivering complex and important projects like Alkimos Station… and the thrill they get from living their dream by working on a ‘real-life’ version of Lego.
Hosting the site visit with IAES further demonstrates CPB Contractors commitment to supporting Indigenous Young people’s career development within the Engineering and Construction Industry and to study STEM subjects at school.
Alkimos Station is one of three stations being built by us as part of the NEWest Alliance on the METRONET Yanchep Rail Extension.
