Workforce accommodation refers to the lodgings and associated infrastructure required to house a project’s employees and contracting staff, generally on large scale construction or infrastructure projects where the location of the work makes daily commuting impractical.

Components of workforce accommodation sites generally include light vehicle parking, accommodation cabins, fencing, gym, recreational areas, cultural and/or prayer spaces, catered mess hall, water treatment facilities and internal access roads.

Recognising that it is not practical or reasonable to accommodate the VNI West construction workforce in existing towns, TCV is seeking alternate locations to develop temporary accommodation, at up to three locations along the VNI West project corridor. Each of these sites is expected to accommodate between 200 and 300 people at peak construction.

TCV seeks to identify suitable sites of no more than 12 hectares each that can be leased for workforce accommodation use and possible associated laydown usage. Combined accommodation and laydown areas would not exceed 12 hectares.

Sites identified as possible locations for infrastructure to accommodate VNI West’s construction workforce will be assessed against a number of criteria including distance to existing residences, to ensure that impacts such as traffic and noise can be managed within acceptable levels.

From discussions with communities, TCV recognises that housing availability and affordability are already areas of concern for much of the VNI West project corridor. We intend to develop workforce accommodation that does not put any additional strain on existing local housing stock, services or infrastructure.

We recognise an opportunity through the workforce accommodation solutions to create long-term solutions that can respond to local communities’ need for increased housing availability.

A construction laydown area, or laydown, is a term used for sites that store construction materials and equipment. For VNI West, TCV will require laydown areas up to 5 hectares in size, with between two and eight laydowns required across the full project corridor. Some laydown areas may be co-located with an accommodation site.

Components of a construction laydown area generally include storage and stockpiling facilities, vehicle and equipment storage, maintenance sheds, chemical and fuel stores, parking areas, demountable site offices and amenities or internal access roads.