How can expert water management transform your project’s success? Yang Liu, Design Manager – Water at Coates, shares his 20+ years of experience designing innovative solutions that optimise efficiency, enhance sustainability, and create better living environments in our cities.
Coates Engineering Solutions delivers tailored, end-to-end solutions for temporary works across a wide range of projects. Specialising in areas such as water management, shoring and propping, the team combines technical excellence with industry-leading equipment to ensure projects are completed safely, efficiently, and sustainably.
Yang Liu, Design Manager – Water, has worked at Coates for more than six years. He holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Sydney.
- Please describe your role, and what an average work day/week looks like.
My job is to strategically deliver water management solutions for our customers so they can maximise the environmental, economic and planning benefits of their projects.
- What are some of the biggest challenges your customers are facing right now?
When dealing with water problems on site, many customers find that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach won’t work because the equipment they purchase for one project won’t always meet the needs of the next.
- How does your team help customers overcome these challenges?
Customers can outsource the risk and investment of equipment ownership by hiring rather than buying water management equipment, such as dewatering pumps, sediment tanks and sludge management systems. This also saves them the time and expertise required to handle water issues, along with the costs of maintenance, process management, and the responsibility for the solution’s overall success.
Our team consists of engineers, project managers, and field technicians with extensive experience in the water space. We aim to deliver projects seamlessly and respond promptly when the unexpected suddenly happens on site – as it often does with water.
The professional service from our team ensures our clients have peace of mind when managing water on their projects. I think this is why the Water team has been engaged with hundreds of projects with new and returning customers.
- Can you describe any interesting industry trends, or any new/developing technology you’re excited about?
One of the most pressing challenges on any metro construction project is the space limitation. This scarcity requires efficient design solutions to maximise the available area. With Australia’s largest range of dewatering and water treatment equipment and over 145 branches, our national teams can quickly get to site to resolve water issues by offering our customers the right solution.
- What’s your favourite thing about your role, or the industry you support?
My proudest moment is seeing our projects completed on time, within budget and with minimal environmental impact. I especially enjoy working on projects that help make our cities better places to live.
When my kids ask about the tunnel we’re driving through, the light rail we’re riding on or the airport we’re walking into, I’m always very proud to tell them their dad worked on those sites as part of Coates’ Water engineering team. It makes you feel great knowing what you do every day is connected to your community.
For more on how Coates Engineering Solutions can support your next project, visit: coates.com.au/engineering-solutions
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