Mario Saliba Transport Lead - VIC | Urban Development Lead - VIC
MEL
Mario has over 25 years of engineering experience in the design and documentation of civil, road, construction and transport works. His depth of knowledge and expertise in delivering complex projects on time and budget underpins his role at WGA, which is focussed on leading, and growing the Civil and Transport Infrastructure team.
Mario’s career began as a Site Engineer at gold mine sites in central Western Australia where he immersed himself in every and any opportunity to learn and grow across many aspects of the business. This ranged from getting his heavy vehicle license and driving 250 tonne dump trucks, to setting explosives patterns, operating water carts and office management. The application of Mario’s can-do attitude and willingness to learn throughout his career has seen him develop into an all-rounder in the technical design and construction space, embracing all aspects of engineering.
Renowned for his exceptional client-driven outcomes, Mario prides himself on understanding project challenges and objectives, whilst applying his broad experience to consider the risks and opportunities associated with a range of procurement models and commercial frameworks. Mario is passionate about developing people and leading teams and thrives on applying his negotiation skills and commercial nous to proposal submissions. His established connections within the Victorian transport infrastructure market, including government, contractors and consultants, is an asset to Mario’s role of developing capability within the Melbourne WGA office.
Mario highlights his work on the Western Highway Realignment Project, between Melton and Bacchus Marsh as one of the largest projects in scale, value and complexity he has managed. The project involved careful management of environmental impacts along with the relocation of numerous aboriginal artefacts. Procedures were developed to successfully relocate native flora to a nearby local habitat and the project engaged with the local aboriginal community who through sharing their culture, conveyed the importance of relocating artefacts. Beyond the wide-reaching positive community impact, most importantly the project removed a number of black spots from the road network, where many lives have previously been lost.
The impact of the consideration of safety in design, construction and operations has been a significant change during Mario’s career. Whilst safety was a key factor in the early 1990s working in the mining industry, Mario recalls that it wasn’t as prominent in the construction sector. Safety is now at the forefront of all projects with incentives built into contracts associated with safety performance and the implementation of safety initiatives.
Mario is a dedicated family man who aspires to one day be involved in projects which provide the basic necessities for life, in particular for communities for whom clean water supply and essential infrastructure projects would be life-changing.
Mario’s project experience includes:
- Western Highway Anthonys Cutting Realignment, Melton and Bacchus Marsh
- Webb Dock Redevelopment Project, Port of Melbourne
- Cooper Street Duplication Project, Epping
- Plutonic Gold Mine, Kumarina WA
- Talors Road level crossing removal, St.Albans