Woods Road datacentre construction overview
December 5th, 2022
Breaking ground with community leaders at Melbourne datacentre sites
On December 5, 2022, Microsoft and our construction partners welcomed local community leaders to groundbreaking ceremonies at three of our Melbourne datacentre locations: Garden Drive, Cawley Road, and Woods Road. Together with our general contractors, Kapitol Group and BESIX Watpac, and our partners, AusNet Services, Aurecon, ERM, and Turner & Townsend, we honored members of the Hume Council, Maribyrnong Council, Wyndham Council, and Invest Victoria to these three sites to mark the commencement of construction.
Wurundjeri Traditional Owners opened the groundbreaking events with Welcome to Country (Tanderrum) and Smoking Ceremonies.
The Melbourne datacentres will help provide the physical infrastructure for the technology we depend on at work and in our personal lives. Cloud services play an increasingly significant role in our lives – enabling remote work and learning, global collaboration, and business continuity; supporting discovery and innovation; and importantly, powering critical life and safety services. Microsoft datacentres support a wide spectrum of crucial services in Australia, from the lifesaving work of doctors and first responders to essential services like groceries and online banking.
Microsoft has operated in Australia for 39 years, and we continue to invest in the region and the ecosystem of partners and technology providers we rely on to meet the demand of delivering fast, reliable, and sustainable cloud services.
Microsoft is committed to the long-term health of the communities in which we operate and where our employees live and work.
Woods road datacentre ground breaking event, December 5th, 2022
November 10, 2022
Microsoft plans to begin construction for the Woods Road datacenter in December 2022. The datacenter construction site is located on Woods Road in Truganina, near Melbourne in the state of Victoria.
Why datacenters are needed
Datacenters provide the physical infrastructure for the technology we depend on at work and in our personal lives. Whenever you open an app on your phone, join a virtual classroom or meeting, snap and save photos, or play a game with your friends online, you are using a datacenter. Local businesses, government, hospitals, and schools rely on datacenters every day to deliver goods and services to you.
Construction timeline
Datacenter construction will begin December 2022.
The general contractor, Kapitol Group, and AusNet will prepare the site and construct the facilities at the Woods Road site, with an estimated completion date of mid-2025.
Together with our general contractor Kapitol Group and our energy provider AusNet Services, we will take all the necessary considerations to ensure that the environment and community are disturbed as little as possible during the entire construction period.
We will keep neighbors informed in advance of construction work, including traffic mitigation plans, and will comply with the working hours stipulated in our planning permit.
Also, we will follow best practices in construction and verify that our contractors’ Construction Environmental Management Plans capture the appropriate cleanup and reinstatement expectations.
Staying connected
We will keep the community up to date via our “Microsoft in your community” page at https://local.microsoft.com/communities/asia-pacific/australia/
For community related questions, contact us at MelDC@Microsoft.com
If you have operational questions, you can also reach out to the General Contractor point of contact, Belinda Roberts, at belinda.roberts@kapitolgroup.com.au
For PR-related questions, contact the Microsoft Media Hotline: +61 2 8281 3830
