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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
MARCH
2016
PROJECTS AND CONTRACTS
Advisian’s rail practice deals
primarily in resource-based
rail, focusing on freight and
bulk transport. The company is
currently involved in a number of rail projects
in sub-Saharan Africa that are in various
front-end planning stages.
Advisian’s sub-Sahara Africa managing
principal for transport consulting, John
Marshall, says that rail transport is increas-
ingly becoming the option of choice in many
African countries, where poor infrastructure
and road systems hinder the capacity of
contractors to deliver goods and services.
“The challenge in sub-Saharan Africa is that
there is simply insufficient infrastructure,
and this is why rail is more frequently being
considered as a feasible means of transport,”
says Marshall. “Although road transport may
be cheaper in the short term, in many cases rail
is the more viable option over the long run.”
Advisian is able to provide an integrated
service capability for the rail sector including
feasibility studies, project management, engi-
neering support and EPCM for new rail corri-
dors, renewal of colonial railways, complex
urban rail and integrated rail systems, as well
as related services.
“We are high level technical advisors to
our customers,” says Marshall. “We investi-
gate the methods, quantify the methods, and
develop it through concept, pre-feasibility
and feasibility stages,” explains Marshall.
Coupled with technical and deep domain
expertise accessed through the broader
WorleyParsons group, the company’s consult-
ants can add value at all stages of the project
life cycle, enabling customers to drive capital
productivity, minimise operational expendi-
ture and increase operating margins through
environmental optimisation.
“We provide a completely seamless
process so that the Advisian team who works
on a project in the early feasibility stages can
become key players when the project moves
into the execution phase,” says Marshall.
“By being involved in the initial phases we
generate and develop a large amount of
information and understanding that puts our
customers in a stronger position when moving
into each of the following phases,” he explains.
Advisian’s regional executive manager,
Adam Boughton, says, “This unique ‘line of
sight’, combined with our support services
complement including Environmental &
Social, Geotechnical, Master Planning, Energy
Advisory, and Ports and Martine Terminals
provides a truly integrated offering. Further,
having the ability to take a project from
inception right through to completion is what
Advisian believes places us ahead of our
competitors and makes the group a strong
driver of growth in our Africa operations.”
With over 200 personnel with experi-
ence in the railway sector, Advisian assists
customers in Africa and throughout the world
with a full complement of services. These
include transport planning, passenger, freight
and heavy haul management and operations,
integrated rail engineering and design and
project and contract management.
Advisian operates as an independent
business advisory line within WorleyParsons
and was officially launched globally, including
in the sub-Saharan African region, in July
last year. It combines high level strategic
management advisory services with strong
engineering and technical expertise to create
an advisory service able to address the needs
of customers at every point in the project
development cycle. All the skills residing
in Advisian worldwide are available to
customers in Africa allowing for an enormous
breadth of expertise to go beyond perfor-
mance optimisation to mitigating risk and
identifying opportunities across customers’
entire end-to-end business value chain.
FULL STEAM AHEAD
Advisian, the advisory
business line of
WorleyParsons, is rapidly
becoming a leading
provider of rail advisory
and engineering services in
Africa, offering independent
management and strategic
advisory services for the
railway sector.
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