SJ has been rapidly deepening its urban and infrastructure capabilities, and extending its geographical reach through organic growth, acquisitions and partnerships. In August 2016, it acquired SMEC Holdings, an Australian-based infrastructure consultancy with a strong track record in major projects in the urban transport, energy and water sectors. More recently, SJ further strengthened its urban capabilities with the acquisition of Robert Bird Group, a global consulting engineering firm headquartered in Australia, renowned for delivering structural, civil and construction services on iconic complex projects. Recognising the need for financing in infrastructure development in Asia, SJ is collaborating with the Credit Guarantee & investment facility (CGIF) to boost the use of local currency-denominated project bonds to finance greenfield infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia.
A leader in industry innovations, SJ has also pushed the frontiers in innovative structures and construction methods. An example is the Jurong Rock Caverns, Southeast Asia’s first underground rock cavern for oil storage. With Phase 1 completed in 2014, a planned phase 2 will double its current storage capacity to 480,000 cu metres. In the areas of Sustainability and food resiliency, SJ has created a new vertical farming concept called Floating Ponds, where fish farms could soon sprout at a park or on a rooftop. These vertical farms are nestled in Singapore’s urban spaces to maximise land use, and tap on solar energy to grow algae as feed for the fish. BCA’s BIM Awards 2017 also highlighted two of SJ’s projects, namely the NTU Learning Hub and Wisteria Condo & Mall, with the latter being the first Government Land Sales Mixed-use Development project to utilise Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC) method.
In the digital arena, SJ has launched a suite of “Smart City in a Box” solutions. This cloud-based platform allows customisable Apps in four key areas – security, efficiency, sustainability and community to be loaded onto a single dashboard. This enables city officials to monitor, collate and manage cities more effectively and efficiently. SJ’s integrated smart city solutions are developed from over 30 years of experience deploying its proprietary Integrated Estate Management System in Singapore’s public housing estates. In May 2017, SJ signed an MOU with Arctron Data & Innovation Technology (“ADIT”), one of the leading BIM technology developers in China, to jointly develop Facilities Management (FM) related software products based on BIM.