Infrastructure Australia puts the five-year major public infrastructure pipeline at a record $242 billion, while estimating projects face a shortage of 141,000 workers. That figure could exceed 300,000 by mid-2027. The numbers point to the central delivery challenge: Australia has a large public works program, but the industry must lift output without relying only on hiring more people.
The workforce constraint
The pipeline has grown by $29 billion in a year. Planned investments could improve transport, accelerate the energy transition, strengthen water security, and build skills and supply chains. Massimo Franceschi, chief operating officer, Webuild Australia, said the pipeline’s scale raises a basic question: how can each dollar invested deliver the greatest value?
Construction productivity has lagged behind other sectors. Labour productivity in construction grew 17 per cent between 1994-95 and 2023-24, compared with 64 per cent across market-sector industries and 58 per cent in manufacturing. Oxford Economics estimates stagnant construction productivity costs Australia $62 billion in lost work each year.
Franceschi said the industry can't rely only on adding people to deliver more infrastructure; it must make better use of existing capability. Infrastructure Australia’s projected workforce shortage makes that a direct constraint on delivery. Workers, productivity, and the capacity of contractors and suppliers all shape whether the construction program can be delivered.
Where productivity could improve
Franceschi outlined four approaches: standardising repeatable assets, resolving constructability issues early, assigning risk to those best able to manage it, and transferring capability between projects and jurisdictions. Reusable designs and standardised components for stations, substations, and viaducts can reduce interfaces, support more efficient manufacturing, and give suppliers greater confidence to invest.
Early industry involvement in design can tackle engineering, sequencing, logistics, and supply-chain issues while options remain open and changes cost less. Collaborative contracting can give clients and contractors more transparency and certainty. The article says the parties with the knowledge, authority, and capability to control a risk can manage it most efficiently.
Digital engineering, modern construction methods, and more efficient manufacturing can improve planning and delivery. Reusable components and designs can carry successful approaches from one project to another, while procurement can encourage proven innovation rather than requiring the industry to reinvent its approach each time. Aligning relevant standards and requirements between jurisdictions can help apply skills, systems, technologies, and proven solutions across programs.
Local and international capability
Franceschi said local contractors bring knowledge of Australian communities, conditions, supply chains, and regulation. International contractors bring experience from other markets and technical environments, including major transport, energy, water, and tunnelling programs. He said combining those strengths while developing local skills, suppliers, and partnerships can expand industry capacity rather than replace it.
Franceschi cited Copenhagen’s M4 metro extension and Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel as publicly reported international benchmarks, but cautioned that direct comparisons require care. Copenhagen’s project delivered five stations and 5.7 kilometres of tunnel over almost six years for about $1.9 billion. Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel delivered five stations and twin nine-kilometre tunnels at a project cost of $13.48 billion. Neither project is a Webuild project. Scope, geology, labour markets, regulatory requirements, design standards, and included works differ.
Franceschi said Australia has the investment, pipeline, and engineering capability to deliver an extraordinary decade of infrastructure. The opportunity, he said, is to build more and better, lift productivity, and strengthen the construction industry for future projects. The pipeline stands at $242 billion, while the workforce shortage and productivity gap remain the stated delivery tests.