SYSTRA strengthens its expertise in tunnels with the acquisition of Bamser

SYSTRA ANZ is pleased to announce the acquisition of Bamser, an Australian based infrastructure advisory firm providing multi-disciplinary services to the transport, utilities, mining and energy sectors.

systra bamser-signing
Left to right: Alana Newbrook, SYSTRA ANZ; Ben Crosby, SYSTRA Bamser; Tim Brown, SYSTRA Bamser; Jean-Charles Vollery, SYSTRA Groupe

With offices in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, Bamser have delivered city shaping projects extensively across Australia and into Asia.

‘We’ve been involved in some of the largest infrastructure projects in Australia and overseas and look forward to adding our expertise to one of world’s leading engineering and consulting groups, specialised in public transport and mobility solutions.’ – Tim Brown, Director, Bamser.

‘By combining our strengths, SYSTRA in design and Bamser in delivery, our current and future clients gain a broader service offering across more of the project lifecycle, from the advisors that they know and trust.’ – Ben Crosby, Director, Bamser.

Renowned for their excellence in underground engineering, the transaction boosts SYSTRA’s position as a leading global player in complex tunnelling, coming after the 2021 acquisition of SWS, a leading tunnelling design firm based in Italy.

‘As we look to continue the growth of our cities and move to a net zero future, tunnelling provides a solution to enable mass transit along with providing opportunities for energy storage and creation through dams, pumped hydro and trenchless projects. We are excited to further bolster our global offering in complex engineering solutions and add to our global expertise in bridges and tunnels with the acquisition of Bamser.

With a large pipeline of major infrastructure projects to be delivered, and significant skills shortage in the tunnelling space, our clients and partners will benefit from our expanded service offering, deepening our global leadership in underground engineering and bringing it to the ANZ market at a time when most needed’ – Alana Newbrook, CEO, SYSTRA ANZ

About SYSTRA

SYSTRA is one of the world’s leading engineering and consulting groups specialised in public transport and mobility solutions. For more than 65 years, the Group has worked alongside cities and regions, contributing to positive development by creating, improving, and modernising their transport infrastructures.

The ANZ team is an integral part of part of the global network, backed by nearly 9,000 experts, providing us the unique ability to be agile with global scale. With our first project in Australia almost 20 years ago, in 2022, we opened our first permanent office in New Zealand, and are going from strength to strength, expanding in both geography and head count. When a project is complex, high risk and requires deep technical skills and pedigree, SYSTRA ANZ is the signature team.

For more information, visit systra.com/australia.

About Bamser

Established in 2008 with offices in QLD, NSW and VIC, Bamser provides frontline advisory services on complex tunnelling, trenchless and infrastructure projects across Australia and internationally.

An integrated team of project development, procurement, and delivery advisors with the best technical skills and local experience available, they have been involved in some of the largest infrastructure projects in Australia, including Sydney Metro; WestConnex; Western Harbour Tunnel, Suburban Rail Link, AirportLink, Legacy Way and Cross River Rail.

Connecting Teams through International Mobility

In October this year, Nieves transferred to our Sydney office from our headquarters in Paris.

Nieves a Senior Consultant in our Complex Structures team says, “The opportunity to come out to Australia to help grow our expertise in Tunnels and Bridges was too good to refuse. Firstly, the opportunity to work on some of Australia’s most significant projects was a big factor in our decision to move and then secondly the chance to bring our young family over to Australia was equally amazing. My family and I are both grateful for SYSTRA’s support to make the move possible.”

SYSTRA ANZ is focused on developing its skills in Complex Structures leveraging its Bridges & Tunnels international network of more than 900 experts across the world. In her role, Nieves will bring her decade of experience to connect our global network to the local market where she will also focus on the execution of tenders, negotiation of services and project delivery.

She adds, “In my career I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked on projects in Europe and Central America including roles onsite as a construction engineer so have valuable experience and networks that I think will be of value to our Australian clients.”

The Future must focus on Sustainability

When speaking about the future of Complex Structures, Nieves is passionate about the role sustainability will play.

“We are building all these amazing structures that are connecting people to one another as well as new opportunities, but it needs to be done in a more sustainable way. Transport is the world’s third largest emitter of carbon. That is why SYSTRA has placed sustainable innovation at the core of its offer because we cannot compromise the future of the next generation.

Nieves Penalba Perez

“An example of sustainable innovation is our CarbonTracker tool which measures, monitors and controls carbon emissions at each phase of the project. The application is a powerful solution during the tender design of a Design & Build project to evaluate the CO2 emissions of the reference design and the savings that our design could generate.”

A Champion for Social Responsibility

Moving to Australia was not the first times Nieves has lived abroad. Having grown up in Spain she moved to Paris for her first opportunity with SYSTRA where she began her career as an Alignment and Track Engineer.

Recently, Nieves was given the full support of the business to take a year off to travel the world and volunteer. Spending time in a remote Peruvian town in the Andes Ranges near the Cusco Valley, Nieves admits this experience made her more aware of the societal responsibility we have in our industry. Upholding our value of bold leadership, she has since championed SYSTRA’s involvement with ‘Bridges to Prosperity’ where we will help construct a footbridge in Rwanda.

She finishes, “I consider equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion as core values for the future of our industry. As a woman living abroad, I am very thankful for the opportunities that have come my way. Now, as a mum, I feel that it’s my turn to help us reach social equality. Our commitment to build a more sustainable future is essential to serve the coming generations.”

Upholding our Values

SYSTRA’s international mobility is embedded within our values. We connect our experts throughout the entire Group and coordinate them in order to respond to the most complex issues. This also extends to our people connecting with their loved ones overseas. We recently introduced an International Work Remote Program so our staff can visit family and friends anywhere in the world. Read more about that here.

To find out more about our ambitions and values, please hit the link here.

To get in contact with Nieves, please reach out to her here.