Sydney Water Major Projects Portfolio

Project Overview

Sydney Water’s Major Projects Portfolio is a large-scale capital delivery program spanning major water and wastewater infrastructure projects, delivered through a range of collaborative and traditional contract models including NEC4, GC21 and bespoke forms. Acuity supported this portfolio across projects including Upper South Creek Advanced Water Recycling Centre, Upper South Creek Network, Lower South Creek and Richmond System Wastewater Upgrade.

What Acuity Did

Acuity provided strategic commercial leadership across Sydney Water’s Major Projects Portfolio, advising senior executives and legal teams on complex commercial, contractual and dispute matters across multiple high-value projects. Our role included leading commercial negotiations, supporting contract implementation, managing change and cost control processes, and advising on entitlement, quantum and delay issues across a number of disputes.

We also led the negotiation of the Upper South Creek AWRC and Pipelines contract, helping deliver the first NEC4 contract of its kind in the APAC region, before continuing to support the commercial team through post-execution delivery, including the resolution of significant quantum, delay and disruption claims. Alongside this, Acuity developed and implemented cost and commercial reporting across the wider Major Projects Portfolio and drove continuous improvement initiatives in cost management, reporting and commercial governance.

Acuity’s Value Add

Acuity brought structure, commercial discipline and dispute resolution capability to one of Australia’s most significant infrastructure portfolios. By combining strong contract strategy with practical delivery support, we helped Sydney Water improve governance, strengthen commercial reporting, resolve high-value claims more effectively and embed more robust portfolio-wide commercial controls.

Our involvement also helped establish a market-leading benchmark for NEC4 implementation in Australia. Through negotiation leadership, dispute support, expert coordination and portfolio-wide process improvement, Acuity delivered lasting value beyond individual projects by improving commercial capability, increasing cost visibility and supporting better long-term outcomes across the program.