It's certainly been an unprecedented time across Australia and throughout the world and we are so proud of how the Ducon Team have pulled together as always to keep on getting things done. And done safely.

With weekly video updates from our CEO Russ to help keep everyone informed; surprise care packages; remote employee of the month; online virtual lunchroom quizes to keep us connected and utilising our High Risk COVID-19 Construction Plan to keep the site crews safe; its been a busy 6-months!

Well done to the extended Ducon Team (Our People, Our Subcontractors and Our Clients) - a simply awesome effort!

Situation
Are you looking to include eco-friendly products with environmental accreditation and sustainability in your next project? An alternative closely reflecting that of a natural product but is made from recycled materials?

Solution

WPC (Wood and Plastic Composite) or Modwood is an environmentally friendly timber substitute produced from recycled wood and plastics.

Highly resistant to weather extremes and versatile, WPC products are the perfect solution for outdoor areas such as timber walkways and decking, commercial grade screens and wall cladding to name a few.

Benefits

Modwood is environmentally friendly with a Green Rating and Fire Rating.

It out performs natural timber, handling weather extremes as it doesn’t warp, rot or crack. Modwood is a low maintenance alternative that doesn’t require painting or staining that natural timbers do.

Situation
At some point or another, we have all experienced those projects where excavation is located within a high operational environment, too close to a building or near underground services. This can cause significant risk to workers and the community alike and prove costly to any organisation.

We have all heard those Dial Before you Dig advertisements, but what can we actually do about it?

NDD can help in any of the below situations;

• Sensitive asset exposure
• Draining pit and manhole fluids as well as storm drains, conduit and pipes
• Digging post holes and vacuum excavating pit holes
• Safely exposing tree roots with minimal impact
• Safe and effective removal of bore fluid around directional drilling machinery.

Solution
If you find yourself in this situation, the chances are you need a Non-Destructive Digging (NDD) solution. NDD comes in a few different methods:

• Trenching
• Pit Cleaning
• Pipe Jetting
• Pot Holing and many other applications of NDD.

Benefits
NDD method of digging can be used to pothole or expose underground utilities and has been identified as the safest method of excavation. This ensures there is minimal risk of damaging underground services such as gas lines, water lines, power cables, telecommunication cables and leaves a clean work site due to the vacuums used to suck up the soil.

Some projects can be in difficult, hard to access places and present themselves in any environment.

Temporarily closing a facility is not always the best option and in most cases, not practical.

Luckily there are solutions for problems like these;

• Scaffolding – Modular scaffold, A-frame scaffold to name a few
• Boom lifts and scissor lifts
• Rope access
• Swing stages
• Hoists

This is not unfamiliar territory for Ducon Building Solutions, having provided an effective and timely solution to the City of Kingston at the Waves Leisure Centre.

Scuba Divers were used to assist with the installation and erection of scaffolding to avoid draining the pools so the facility could remain open to the public.

This method allowed Ducon Building Solutions to gain access to the affected areas of the ceiling that was safe and greatly reduced the facilities down time. Maintaining an around the clock program that did not compromise our commitment to safety, resulting in happier members and stakeholders was what made this project a success.

Ducon Building Solutions are available 24/7 and can be contacted on our out of hours hotline 03 8508 5579 with our reactive maintenance team ready to complete any emergency and service works.

Ducon Building Solutions provide building and maintenance solutions for volume asset owners and managers.

Biohazard: Problem? Solution: Ducon

Biohazards can be nasty business. Bacteria can occur in any building for many reasons that can contribute to unhealthy and dangerous environments if left unchecked.

Ducon Building Solutions can provide qualified technicians who can help you transform any unsafe environments back into clean and safe work spaces.

Our technicians can help you with:

·         Mould and bacteria remediation to prevent risk and exposure

·         Mould inspection to determine the most effective method of removal

·         Air scrubbing solutions

·         Dry works and dry ice blasting services to prevent further contamination

Ducon Building Solutions have trained and certified technicians with extensive industry experience in insurance work, emergency response, healthcare institutions, commercial property and site assessments to name a few.

Secure a solution with Ducon

Is security in and around your facility needing an upgrade?

As security continues to become a major concern for many organisations, Ducon Building Solutions are experts in retrofitting and can provide you with the solution.

Below is a sample of products Ducon are currently working on with our clients;

Windows – The Catch Cable system is the perfect retrofitting solution as it has been designed to be installed on to existing buildings

Doors – Aluminium, steel, high security counters or fire doors

Screens for open counters – great for sensitive environments that still allow client interaction with minimal intrusion to staff

Bollards – Don’t just think ‘ugly concrete blocks’ think retractable bollards, fold down bollards, architectural bollards, high security bollards or stainless steel bollards.

The prevention is always better than the cure and Ducon Building Solutions has extensive experience providing security solutions for many of our reputable clients making their safety a priority. 

Ducon has you covered

We all know that the smallest of jobs within your existing buildings can quickly become an irritation for any project costing time, money and inconvenience in and around your daily operations.

Do you want to contain dust or maybe you’re looking for vacuums and air filtration?

Are you seeking a solution that is safe and environmentally friendly?

A solution that can protect any project and will ensure it is a timely completion and has minimal impact to your operational requirements?

Ducon Building Solutions have our own qualified and skilled trade’s people who can help you solve a problem before it occurs with a unique surface protection/dust suppression solution. 

There is still time to deliver that job before EOFY

The focus for Ducon Building Solutions is now on supporting EOFY requirements.

To manage this, we have an experienced group of project and service delivery teams as well as a very experienced and capable estimating department who are eager to provide you with a solution for all your project needs before the end of the financial year is upon us.

So whether you are looking to get that large renovation or fit out completed and off the books by EOFY or just have that nagging little painting job to do, please don’t hesitate to contact us for a rapid response price and program to ensure it provides you with that solution you have been looking for.

Sprung a leak? No problem

As we slowly move out of summer and ease into the coming winter months you may find yourself locating rain related leaks.

Thermal image scanning just may be the solution you are looking for.

Problem areas can be located quickly due to the thermal imaging being able to detect differences in temperature that cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Not only can Ducon also provide you with a solution for rain related damage, the thermal image scanning can be used to detect mould and moisture and plumbing issues caused by blocked pipes, leaky pipes that are hidden behind walls and cannot be seen without the need for costly exploratory work.

Tight Budget and Needing a Solution?

As we are well and truly into the New Year, you may find yourself balancing tight budgets with achieving project outcomes.

If you are looking for support from a builder, then look no further. Ducon has a team of 75 who are ready to help.

Ducon recently assisted with a unique project for Creative Victoria at the Testing Grounds, a community based superstructure that allows up and coming artists to display their work for all of Melbourne to enjoy.

Ducon was able to support the process at the ground floor with value buildability input thereby assisting the project control team in realising budget with negligible compromise on scope and functionality.

The opening Ceremony was in December 2016 and the wider arts community now enjoy the space on a regular basis. 

Did you survive the storm?

Hasn’t this weather been crazy? December saw storm events where the bureau of meteorology recording 18.4 mm of rainfall within as little as a 10 minute period.

How did your buildings hold up?

Ducon responded to 97 calls for help caused by this wild weather and received great feedback regarding the efficiency and promptness of Ducons 24 hour Service Department and how each of the call outs were handled with minimal lost time. This included sensitive areas such as the emergency departments in the Alfred hospital. 

We are excited to announce that after some recent internal restructuring, as of Friday 1^st July, Ducon Maintenance has implemented a name change to ‘Ducon Building Solutions.’

This exciting new chapter at Ducon, will enable us to better cater for the increase in demand and expectations of you, our valued clients. We will of course be offering the same Ducon quality that you have come to trust.

The business will continue to work across two main service areas – Projects and Services.

 The Project Department focuses on;

• Projects that require dynamic project management and full site supervision, in order to effectively achieve the desired project outcome for you
• Expert analysis of existing infrastructure in any project we undertake, means our multi-skilled team, supplemented with carefully selected subcontractors where necessary, can offer a range of property solutions to you

The Service Department focuses on smaller projects such as;

• Minor refurbishments and fit-outs
• Scheduled maintenance
• Term Maintenance contracts
• Call-outs (including emergency make safe 24-hour)
• Quoted minor projects
• Building ‘health checks
• Rectification works
• Hourly rate labour supply
• Essential Safety Measure works

We value our directly employed staff, who produce consistently high levels of quality work, and truly embrace the Ducon ethos of ‘Building Great.’

Could you please note that the ABN will remain the same - 79 150 941 174.

Thank you all for your ongoing support!

With the current changing demands and shift in market conditions, we have had to have a good look at the needs of our clients’, then ourselves and redefine who we are and what we do. As recently announced we have undergone some minor internal restructure changes to meet with the needs of our clients, and to move the business to where the market will better support us. Further to this Ducon Maintenance is excited to announce their new name;Ducon Building Solutions. Although this is not exactly a new business we listened to our clients. This re-positioning will cater for the increase in demand and expectations of our valued clients. It will open up many more opportunities for us to provide even greater solutions to the building needs of our clients, for the coming year ahead and well into the future. 

Ducon were over the weekend announced as Runners Up at the Australian Institute of Building Professional Excellence in Building Awards for our Epsom Station Project. Great work to the entire team! Pictured is Project Manager, David Burnell.

The Epsom Station project started as a hard money tender for the Design and Construction (D+C) of a new 160m single-sided station platform alongside the existing Bendigo to Echuca rail line. Ducon tendered the project in early 2014 and were awarded the project on 15 April 2015, with a contract completion date corrected to 10 October.

The client had advised an immovable completion (not a contractual requirement) due to the state election and the departmental need for the project to finish before the State Government went in to caretaker mode leading in to the election.

Ducon Construction tendered on a partial design solution that was not fully detailed, and a project performance list that included some options regarding car park size which would be determined by both tender costs and the final business case for patronage of the service.

The project had an initial design and review period of 25 days with a site construction time of 80 days. Due to a number of increased scope items from external project stakeholders (local council requested a number of significant inclusions post-tender before giving approval to proceed), VicTrack eventually negotiated these requirements and provided instructions to include the additional work within the original completion date.

The project was commenced with a ground breaking ceremony on 14 June 2014, with the Victorian Minister for Transport and media, with the expectation that completion would be achieved before the already announced opening on the second weekend in October.

Ducon managed works despite design delays affecting commencements and completed the project on 30 September 2014 with no site defects. Ducon were able to assist with the official opening celebrations on Saturday 11 October 2014.

The client, VicTrack, has been incredible supportive of our achievement as it also reflected well on their new delivery process with the first D+C delivery for design completion finishing over a week ahead of the contract completion date. Ducon were provided with an outstanding completion report summary from all rail stakeholders. VicTRack, as Project Manager, V-Line as rail operator, and Public Transport Victoria as the client for the station on completion.

Ducon recognises the success of this project is not only due to our pro-active management and efficient site systems, but also reflects the strong collaborative relationships with both our clients, project stakeholders and subcontractors who all believed an outstanding quality project being delivered on a tight timeframe was a challenge to be achieved rather than an excuse for future obstacles.

We are extremely proud of our efforts and the enhanced access for public transport using MYKI travel to Melbourne for the residents of Epsom and the outer suburbs of northern Bendigo.

The project team consisted of - David Burnell FAIB, Adrian Hall, Matthew Vilchez and Terry Binyon.

Click here to download the official Media Release

Ducon has been a provider of quality construction for the Victorian Building Market since 2002. Over the past 12 years, the company has grown to employ over 90 staff, well versed in a variety of services. "We place a priority on recruiting the best and birghtest in the industry and retaining these valued team members in a supportive and enjoyable work environment," says Owner and CEO Peter Mason. 

Read the full story here.

Ducon arrives on time! Ducon Construction delivered the new Epsom Station seventeen weeks start to finish! The team was mixing it up with the Transport minister Terry Mulder at the official opening over the weekend, where Mr Mulder said the station was a "magnificent asset" to the Epsom community & City of Greater Bendigo councillor James Williams said he was "delighted with the new station".  Read more here.

Ducon Maintenance is proud to be a part of the new upgrades at Sandown Park grey-hound racing facility.  The team met with Premier of Victoria and Minister for Racing Denis Napthine last Sunday to show him around the start of our works. Dr Napthine has announced a $1.86 million upgrade of patrons’ facilities at Sandown Park, and said Sandown Park was vital to the ongoing success of Victorian greyhound racing and the upgrades would improve the experience for patrons at the iconic venue.

“These major works will make a day or night out at the Sandown greyhounds even better while also making the venue far more suitable for non-raceday functions and events,” Dr Napthine said.  

Read the full article here

We are excited to have handed over the new Epsom Railway Station to VicTrack today, with a community 'sneak peek' celebration this Saturday 11 October, the new station officially opens this Sunday 12 October. 

Ducon have rebuilt the station from scratch and it's been 40 years since passenger trains stopped at Epsom, which will now see four trains a day stopping at Epsom from Sunday 12 October 2014, and includes 100 free commuter car parking spaces, a drop-off zone and bike racks. Well done to all involved and thank you to Pepper Green Farm for todays catering & Michael Evans Photographer who took this wonderful photo of the new station! 

Local residents can attend a community celebration on Saturday 11 October between 10am and noon at Epsom station, corner of Howard and Station Streets which includes entertainment by local performers, face painting and a sausage sizzle!

Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder was on site yesterday to turn the first sod at Ducon's new Epsom Train Station project. "This is a great project, it's a fantastic project," Mr Mulder said. Construction started this week with the new train station set to be operational before the end of the year. Even WIN TV and the Bendigo Addy were there to capture the occasion!  See more on the links below.

Bendigo Advertiser

ABC News

Premiers Media Release