"Snowy Hydro contractor denies claims it exposed workers to risk of death or injury", 10 July 2026

A major contractor on the multi-billion-dollar Snowy Hydro project is defending itself against accusations it exposed five workers to the risk of death or serious injury in two separate incidents, including one in which a man allegedly made an extraordinary escape from a falling truck.

SafeWork NSW has launched two separate criminal proceedings against Italian infrastructure firm Webuild in the NSW Industrial Court alleging it put the workers at risk of death or serious injury.

Webuild has pleaded not guilty in both matters…

According to court documents lodged by SafeWork in May last year, three men were performing maintenance underneath a concrete agitator truck at Lobs Hole in Kosciuszko National Park when the truck fell from four mobile column lifts.

The watchdog alleged one man was struck by the underside of the truck and knocked to the ground, but managed to roll away "just before" the truck fell down. The other two men escaped on foot.

SafeWork NSW has argued Webuild failed to ensure the health and safety of its workers in the June 2023 incident by failing to have appropriate systems, assessments, procedures and training in place relating to the use of column lifts…

In a separate case — filed in the NSW Industrial Court in October 2024 — it was alleged two men were injured in 2022 while using a broken probe drill associated with a tunnel boring machine known as Florence during works at Tantangara Dam…

The Webuild spokesperson said the drill incident was classified internally as a near miss, with one worker uninjured and the other receiving slight bruising to the hip.

"We want to make clear that Webuild has a global reputation for successfully executing complex tunnelling projects — and as such has stringent procedures, processes and protocols to keep our workers safe while operating tunnel boring machines," the spokesperson said.

"The accident statistics in the Snowy project, updated as of April of this year, are less than half of the Federal Safety Commission's benchmark in Australia.

"Webuild remains fully committed to delivering this critically important infrastructure project safely and to the highest possible standard."…