Snowy Hydro contractor denies claims it exposed workers to risk of death

A major contractor on the multi-billion-dollar Snowy Hydro project is defending itself against accusations it exposed five workers to the risk of death or serious injury in two separate incidents — including one in which a man allegedly made an extraordinary escape from a falling truck.

WorkSafe NSW has launched two separate criminal proceedings against Italian infrastructure firm Webuild in the NSW Industrial Court alleging it put the workers at risk of death or serious injury.

Webuild has pleaded not guilty in both matters.

A spokesman said:  "Webuild is defending the allegations — this is a matter for the courts and not for public commentary."

According to court documents lodged by WorkSafe in May last year, three men were performing maintenance underneath a concrete agitator truck at Lobs Hole in Kosciuszko National Park when the truck fell from four mobile column lifts.

The watchdog alleged one man was struck by the underside of the truck and knocked to the ground, but managed to roll away "just before" the truck fell down. The other two men escaped on foot.

WorkSafe NSW has argued Webuild failed to ensure the health and safety of its workers in the June 2023 incident by failing to have appropriate systems, assessments, procedures and training in place relating to the use of column lifts.

"As a result of the defendant's failures, workers … were exposed to a risk of death or serious injury," the SafeWork NSW filings said.

In a separate case — filed in the NSW Industrial Court in October 2024 — it was alleged two men were injured in 2022 while using a broken probe drill associated with a tunnel boring machine known as Florence during works at Tantangara Dam.

SafeWork NSW has alleged part of the drill, the guide roller, had stopped working earlier the same day, at which point workers stopped operating the piece of equipment.

However, according to the watchdog, the tunnel boring machine production superintendent had ordered the drill to be placed back into operation without ordering a failure analysis or having the broken part repaired or replaced.

The two men were injured when the drill then made an "uncontrolled movement", the court documents alleged, with SafeWork NSW accusing the company of a series of failures that exposed the workers to a risk of death or serious injury.

The Webuild spokesperson said the drill incident was classified internally as a near miss, with one worker uninjured and the other receiving slight bruising to the hip.

"We want to make clear that Webuild has a global reputation for successfully executing complex tunnelling projects — and as such has stringent procedures, processes and protocols to keep our workers safe while operating tunnel boring machines," the spokesperson said.

"The accident statistics in the Snowy project, updated as of April of this year, are less than half of the Federal Safety Commission's benchmark in Australia.

"Webuild remains fully committed to delivering this critically important infrastructure project safely and to the highest possible standard."

Hearings into the matter involving the drill will begin in the Industrial Court in Sydney on Monday. The truck incident is set down for August next year.

The Snowy Hydro 2.0 project will link two existing reservoirs beneath the Kosciuszko National Park through 27 kilometres of tunnels and a new hydro-electric power station.

It was first announced in 2017 with an estimated cost of $2 billion and expected completion date of 2021.

The latest estimated cost is $12 billion — likely to rise further before the project's completion — with completion expected by the end of 2028.

It has been beset by challenges, including safety concerns.

Once built, it is expected to produce 2.2 gigawatts at full capacity, or enough energy to power 3 million homes for a week, according to Snowy Hydro.