In the late ’80s CMPS the largest Consulting Engineer in Australia at that time decided to form a subsidiary State Wide Roads (SWR) to tender for the right to build, own and operate the first private toll road of the modern era. Grahame Campbell describes in his book ‘Clarinets, Pipelines and Unforeseen Places’ the road that took him to that position. The changing landscape for engineering delivery in Australia was the main driver. The following is an extract from the book describing that critical moment.

‘The SWR board met to review our position with the roads authority. Various government agencies needed to sign off on the details of the road design and the bank confirmed our loan arrangements. Statewide Roads had overcome all the questions posed by the legal reviews. A week later we were advised that Premier Nick Greiner was ready to sign a contract. Alan and his team had achieved a major coup. However, a huge job lay in front of them to deliver on the promises we had made. the greatest day in the 75-year history of CMPS was upon us.

Unfortunately, most people in the company had no idea of the importance of this win. In a strange way, it attacked the basis on which the company had been founded. The independent ‘consulting engineer’ providing dispassionate advice to clients had become the major shareholder in a toll road. We had crossed a boundary, in a sense, but the journey had started much earlier. Our main competitors were international contractors who were hard-headed businesses. The idea of professional independence was not part of their history. My forays into advertising a few years earlier had highlighted the divergence. I still believed our strength lay in our professionalism and fought hard to convince our clients that their welfare was our principal objective.’