The ASI has had an important ‘local content’ win on the Victorian Government’s Eastern Freeway Burke to Tram Alliance project.
After disappointingly discovering that 11,000 tonnes of fabricated steel bridge girders were being sourced from overseas by the main contractor Laing O’Rourke for the Bullen flyover, ASI Vic state manager Sulfi Soeleiman persistently raised concerns initially from April 2024 to September 2024, and then at a steel industry forum on the project hosted by Laing O'Rourke in October 2024, and again in November 2024 at a Steel Industry Roundtable with the Victoria Government.
In January 2025, the Local Jobs First Commissioner recommended ASI Vic re-engage with Laing O’Rourke, who advised they will work to procure all remaining steel work packages from local fabricators.
ASI Vic has advised ASI fabricators who are known to be registered on Laing O’Rourke’s Felix Online Tendering Platform on the local opportunities for the remaining steel work. Local content work already allocated includes two overpass pedestrian bridges. Other steel work packages are at the various procurement stages, with local preferred suppliers shortlisted or under tender evaluation for reinforcement steel and pile cages, interchange girders, noise wall posts, weathered steel noise walls, and gantries.