CPB Contractors, as part of a joint venture, is involved in the construction of the Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport (WSI), specifically Airside Civil and Pavement (ACP) works. This includes the runway, taxiways, aircraft pavement markings, airside roads, and other related infrastructure, with the airport scheduled to open in late 2026.
In this series, we deep-dive into the experience of those working on WSI to highlight the opportunities and challenges this historic project brings, and the skillset it demands.
For Project Director Christian Byrne, the WSI project is a culmination of many years of experience in building strong and adaptable teams. With WSI, and particularly with the Airside, Civil and Pavement (ACP) tender, he is proud to have worked on a project from its inception to completion, and he sees teamwork as making the difference.
Having commenced his career with CPB Contractors on the M7 Motorway project in 2003, Christian has spent more than 20 years working in road and rail projects overseas, in Sydney and in regional NSW and WA. He spent some time in the pre-contracts team and contributed to bids including the WSI Early Earthworks tender. On winning the contract, Christian was offered the construction manager role in 2018 and remained at WSI where he became Project Director of ACP.
Reflecting on a project like WSI ACP, where more than 2.8 million hours have been worked, Christian says the people and team culture instilled at WSI and the depth of experience and capability throughout CPB Contractors are key to its success.
“The success of ACP comes down to its people - both at CPB Contractors, and our joint venture partner, Acciona. We’re well aligned in culture and attitude towards construction delivery, so as a leader it's been relatively easy for me to establish a set of common goals and values and, more importantly, we have the people who believe in these values and are able to lead with me and all pull in the same direction.
“We have been similarly aligned in values with our WSI client who are just as motivated to deliver a successful project. It's like climbing a mountain together, in that we either get to the top together, or we all fail. So, when there is a problem between us, we approach it with ‘how do we work through this together, and fairly and reasonably.’ That’s important on a major government project of this scale.”
Christian encourages a team culture to run right across the project.
“We don’t just have one big team at WSI, we’ve got a team of teams, and each of those teams are required to coordinate and interface, working together, all aligned in the common goal to succeed. This mentality was instilled in our Project Managers and Superintendents – we either succeed together or we all fail. When the wider staff see the senior leaders behaving in those ways, everyone buys into it. This culture is a big part of what drives our overall performance, particularly for our safety performance here at WSI.”
A big fan of sport, Christian sees many parallels with sport and construction.
“Construction’s hard work, no day is perfect, and you can have some tough days. Unlike a sporting team, we’re not competing against another team, but we’re competing against the elements of construction work, like weather, planning and time. On a job like ACP, it felt like we’re going to the Super Bowl, and I love to use that message to let people know we're all a team. We've all got to make our own contribution, to chip in, help each other out, look out for each other, and hold each other accountable. We want to have an open mindset to be constantly looking for ways to improve how we work together.”
More than working on such a milestone runway project, one of Christian’s proudest experiences is seeing his team members’ progression and development on their career journeys.
“There were two site engineers that joined Early Earthworks in 2018 – one is now a high performing Senior Project Engineer. I often enjoy watching him at the whiteboard educating his young team of engineers, sharing his technical skills, his planning and programming presentations, and watching him present to work crews in our critical activity reviews, or talking about the importance of safety at morning pre-starts. I just think – wow - what a great company we work in, where we can provide these opportunities to our people. That with the right work ethic, people like this kid can develop from a young site engineer to now a great Senior Project Engineer and junior Project Manager.
“The other young site engineer is now a high performing Project Manager, managing over $150 million dollars of civil work and aircraft pavement. He is a pioneer of aircraft paving works in this country and has incredible opportunities in front of him in this company, with opportunities to continue to be involved in similar major projects around Australia."