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Clearing the Path: How Civil Project Partners Help Shape Smarter Road Projects
An interview with Ryan O’Neill
In the world of road infrastructure, things aren’t getting any simpler. Project complexity is increasing. Expectations are rising. Budgets are under pressure. Timelines are tightening. And for many project owners, navigating that environment requires more than just technical expertise—it demands clarity, consistency, and a grounded understanding of how planning decisions translate into delivery outcomes.
That’s where Civil Project Partners (CPP) comes in.
We sat down with Ryan O’Neill to explore how CPP supports some of the state’s most complex road projects, from early planning through to completion. What emerged was a picture of a team that brings structure to uncertainty, objectivity to competing interests, and confidence to high-stakes decisions.
“When we get involved early, we can help shape the entire direction of a project,” Ryan explains. “Our work focuses on understanding how much something will cost, how long it will take, what the risks are and helping our clients use that information to improve outcomes.”
It’s a deceptively simple mission. But in practice, it means engaging across every layer of a project’s lifecycle, from concept planning and cost estimation through to constructability reviews, procurement strategy, program support, and risk analysis during delivery.
While CPP often begins working with clients in the planning or tendering phase, the earlier they’re engaged, the more value they bring. “Ideally, we’re involved at concept stage,” Ryan says. “If we’re engaged from the beginning and maintain continuity through to delivery, we can avoid the disconnect that often occurs when different teams handle different phases.”
One of the clearest challenges, he says, is the increasing complexity of road projects. “Every project now involves complex stakeholder relationships, evolving specifications, policy considerations, supply chain issues, and rising community expectations. Traffic management alone has become a major cost driver, and with the push toward automation and sustainability, the design and delivery environments are constantly shifting.”
CPP doesn’t just help quantify these challenges, it helps clients respond to them pragmatically. Ryan points to examples where the push to recycle materials runs up against rigid specifications that require quarry-sourced materials hauled hundreds of kilometres. “The intent is there, but the specifications haven’t always caught up. We help clients understand those tensions and build strategies that work within or around them.”
That balancing act plays out across most of CPP’s work. Their role is to act as a bridge between strategy and implementation—between what’s possible, what’s practical, and what’s affordable. That includes providing evidence-based analysis during delivery to support claims assessment, program re-sequencing, and variation management. “It’s not about blaming anyone,” Ryan explains. “It’s about helping everyone understand what happened, why it happened, and what the best way forward looks like.”
This calm, measured approach is one reason CPP is regularly engaged to support high-risk or high-profile projects. Ryan describes recent trends in project scale and procurement models, where many jobs now fall into one of two extremes: large mega-projects or smaller local upgrades, with little in between. That shift, he says, has driven the rise of joint ventures, not just between contractors but also between contractors and designers. “It’s a natural response to resource constraints and capability requirements. And when the right partnerships form, those relationships can carry through multiple projects over many years.”
CPP’s involvement isn’t limited to technical inputs. Their work also touches on procurement strategy, market behaviour, and policies and guidelines. “We’ve seen a shift toward more structured approaches to risk and escalation,” Ryan notes. “TMR, for example, has issued guidance that includes higher escalation allowances to reflect market conditions. That’s helped build more realistic budgets, but it also means we have to be even more rigorous with our modelling.”
For all the talk about innovation in the infrastructure sector, Ryan is quick to point out that not all change needs to be revolutionary. “We try to stay across new materials, new methodologies, and new technologies. But the biggest gains often come from small, implementable changes that make sense on real-world projects. It’s one thing to read about new construction methodologies in Europe, it’s another to be able to use it practically on a regional project in Queensland.”
CPP’s approach is rooted in what’s possible now, while keeping an eye on what’s next. They regularly engage with suppliers and technology developers to assess tools that offer real-world improvements without introducing unnecessary risk or complexity. “Incremental change is often where the industry finds its greatest productivity gains,” Ryan explains. “It’s not about overhauling everything. It’s about looking at each project component and asking, ‘Is there a better way to do this?’”
That mindset has led to major interventions on key projects. Ryan shares an example where CPP was brought in to asses project costings on a key regional infrastructure project. Their re-costing, risk modelling and staging analysis uncovered a $70 million cost gap, an uncomfortable but necessary discovery that helped the project team prepare for a more realistic delivery process. “There was disbelief at first. But once the analysis was accepted, they could approach the market with a credible plan, align their funding strategy, and avoid a major blowout.”
CPP’s role is ultimately about making decisions more robust. Whether a project moves forward or not, their work ensures that choices are made with clear, defensible evidence.
As the conversation closes, Ryan reflects on what makes a project successful. “It comes down to understanding the scope, understanding the risks, and building the right team. It sounds basic, but those fundamentals are often overlooked. And when they are, the project pays the price.”
In an environment where infrastructure delivery is under more scrutiny than ever, the ability to bring clarity, rigour and grounded insight to complex projects is a capability that clients increasingly value—and one that Civil Project Partners deliver every day.
To find out more about how CPP can support your next project, visit www.civilprojectpartners.com.au or contact the team directly to discuss planning, estimation, scheduling or delivery support.