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SPECIAL FeatureS MAJOR ROAD USERS SHOULD PAY
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FEATURE
Major road users should pay – key infrastructure adviser contends Private freight users should be forced to pay more for building and maintaining Australia’s road network, according to Michael Deegan – the National Infrastructure Coordinator. Mr Deegan’s contention is made in a submission by the Office of the National Infrastructure Coordinator to a 12-month Productivity Commission inquiry into the National Access Regime. The submission is one of more than 40 lodged with the commission, which is reviewing the national access regime for roads, ports and airports – the regime was put in place in 1995 as part of Australia’s National Competition Policy. Mr Deegan’s office provides support to Infrastructure Australia and it argues in the submission that IA has recommended there should be thorough consideration of roads governance reform, including options to clearly distinguish between roads with a primary social purpose and roads with a primary economic purpose. It maintains an investment-access approach for the national access regime would bring road users in line with the rail freight industry. “An investment-access undertaking approach would offer a consistent, standardised national approach to negotiation between the user and the infrastructure manager on incremental access and investment.” Mr Deegan said this would provide a strong signal and clear indication to the road freight industry that infrastructure managers were “open for business”. “Operating over a defined network, an investment-access undertaking would offer potential to increase user-funded investment, lifting freight productivity and also helping to improve the demand responsiveness of the system as a whole.” The submission said an investment-access system would be beneficial because it would result in a more demand-responsive road 2
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system due to a clear capacity for the freight sector and its customers to propose and fund investments in the road network. Responsibility for improving what the submission designated as a priority road network would be shared with users to a greater extent than is presently the case. It said while the private sector was currently engaged through toll road PPPs (Public Private Partnerships) the investment access system would represent a “significant further step” in private sector engagement. Australia had, according to the submission, benefited from a six-fold increase in heavy vehicle productivity (load carried per heavy vehicle) over the past 40 years. It said future productivity growth was linked to increasing road access for larger, more productive vehicle types, such as the B-triple now the productivity impact of the six-axle and the B-double had been largely captured. It said this would require additional infrastructure investment; for example pavement and bridge strengthening, larger heavy vehicle rest areas, additional overtaking lanes and town by-passes. “Several jurisdictions allow deed-type arrangements where parties can negotiate to upgrade and fund road improvements, notably connecting to mine sites. However, arrangements are not national, uniform, transparent or well known.” The submission said in contrast, an investment-access undertaking approach under the National Access Regime would, as in the rail freight industry, offer a consistent legal right to negotiate on infrastructure investment, a built-in consultation mechanism and independent arbitration of disputes by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. “This could encourage road freight operators and their customers to organise to propose and fund additional road investments, benefiting industry productivity.
“We can only fund public infrastructure through user tolls or broader taxation. That means we need all options on the table, if we are going to ease congestion, fund public transport and re-engineer Australia’s major cities for growth.”
“The approach would support existing national policy initiatives by incentivising road infrastructure managers to provide improved and prompt information on road asset costs, condition and use.” Mr Deegan noted that commercial freight road users and their customers would need this information in considering both potential investments and any associated incremental road user pricing. Managers, he said, would similarly be required to quarantine investment funds raised and associated user charging revenues from mainstream funds. “Productivity gains under the investmentaccess type of approach could be additional to, and achieved faster than, those from more elaborate and complex national road reforms currently being developed. “An investment-access regime could mitigate constraints on road investments or freight such as government balance sheet issues, nonidentification of worthwhile projects, and the focus on road improvements for cars.” The submission said an investment-access undertaking approach, such as under the
National Access Regime, could be tailored to the circumstances of the road freight industry. It said flexibility was important given the evolving nature of the roads sector and institutional reform. It was also important given the interest in focusing on incremental investment in freight-intensive roads and ensuring these arrangements meshed with both existing arrangements and potential future ones that COAG may agree to on the basis of the Heavy Vehicle Charging and Investment reform plan. The complete submission can be found on the Productivity Commission website. It was published after the infrastructure advocacy body – Infrastructure Partnerships Australia – welcomed the debate on road tolling and said all options needed to be put on the table. IPA said the community understood that projects had not advanced, because of constraints on government budgets. “We can only fund public infrastructure through user tolls or broader taxation. That means we need all options on the table, if we are going to ease congestion, fund public
transport and re-engineer Australia’s major cities for growth,” a statement by IPA said. The statement said the East West Link proposed for Melbourne was the number one infrastructure priority for Victoria, because of the additional capacity it gave to Melbourne’s road network and the major improvements it offered in connecting Australia’s most valuable container port into the national economy. But it argued Victoria had scant capacity in its budget to meet the cost of such a development, meaning difficult decisions would need to be made to free-up money to get projects delivered. “The Victorian Government has made substantial progress in rebasing its budget, and further reform will be necessary over the years ahead. Undoubtedly, the usual suspects will be quick off the mark to criticise the prospect of user charging, but Victoria cannot just print money to get projects done and that means we should be welcoming all positive contributions to the debate. “Obviously, tolling existing corridors is politically complex, but the contribution to the debate should be respected and welcomed.” ROADS APRIL/MAY 2013
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FEATURE
Focusing leadership skills brings another award for Ballina Bypass project
The need to focus leadership skills in major infrastructure projects like the multi-million dollar Ballina Bypass in New South Wales has been highlighted with an award being made to an international management consultancy involved in the project. JMW Consultants was recently awarded The Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) Award for Value and Excellence in Consulting in the Human Capital category for its work with the Ballina Bypass Alliance (BBA). The AMCF Awards are given to projects that best illustrate how consulting teams add value to their clients’ organisations and society at large. The Ballina Bypass project was a complex, $640 million development that required an integrated approach through an alliance comprising Roads and Maritime Services, Leighton Contractors, AECOM, SMEC and Coffey Geotechnics. This project was geotechnically challenging – it involved 12 kilometres of highway upgrade including 19 bridges, three arches and working with extensive soft soils ranging between six metres and 28 metres deep. 4
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Tony Stante, Alliance Project Manager, said the soils confronting the project team were some of the softest and most variable in Australia and work on the project was also impacted by extremely wet weather, which meant the alliance was “playing catch-up” a lot of the time. Mr Stante said specialists from the alliance were forced to use a number of techniques to combat the soft soils and obtain a uniform settlement. “We used stone columns, we used deep soil mixing with cement, we used dynamic compaction – the RTA used vacuum consolidation before we arrived. We had to use the different methods to meet our time frame and costs. “But one of the advantages we had going forward was that the project was an alliance. The RTA decided on an alliance because there was so much softness and variability in the soils. They were at the soft end of soft.” Mr Stante said the role of JMW in facilitating workshops was critical because it helped members of the alliance to think outside the square.
“Legacies that came out of the Ballina project have been used on other road infrastructure; they have been used to advance designs for other projects.” Deborah Kiers – Managing Director, Asia Pacific, JMW Consultants – said the consultancy’s role was to support the leadership, alignment and high performance of the project on a firm four-year timeline. “The most effective leaders elicit an authentic and deep commitment from their people to go beyond what they consider possible,” Ms Kiers said. “Building this leadership capability and an organisational environment that truly encourages innovation and contribution is key to taking an organisation – or an endeavour of this magnitude – to the next level of performance.” The Ballina Bypass project involved managing multiple competing demands, including: capital cost, high engineering and geotechnical risk. Management of the consolidation of deep soft soils, environmentally sensitive waterways, very high regional wet weather impacts and traffic were all part of the project.
FEATURE
“The challenges included not only achieving the high levels of results demanded but also successfully engaging all involved in significantly different ways of thinking and working.”
Ms Kiers said leading companies acknowledged that their success depended largely on the value of their people and this was the case in the Ballina Bypass project. “Key aspects of JMW’s work involved building the leadership capabilities of the Alliance Manager, the Alliance Leadership Team and the Alliance Management Team. “JMW supported BBA through regular coaching sessions, including ‘highperformance’ launch sessions with leadership teams to develop and deepen understanding of the tools and principles required for breakthrough performance.”
Human Capital Achievements for Ballina Bypass Alliance • Staff rollover of less than five per cent compared with an industry standard of 20-25 per cent; • High job satisfaction rates as demonstrated in the results of eight biannual Alliance Health Checks (AHC); • A 90 per cent participation level in the AHC; • Extensive personal training – averaging 1,200 monthly training hours; • A safety culture campaign resulting in two periods of one million man hours lost time injury free; and • Three million man hours worked with a peak of 450 onsite and over 4,000 people orientated and trained. 6
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Ms Kiers said a fundamental part of the work entailed fully engaging the organisation’s frontline. “After initial interviews with key stakeholders, the JMW team developed a Leader as Coach curriculum for 35 individuals considered to be critical frontline players below the Alliance Manager level. “The purpose of this work was to shift to a perspective of responsibility, and equip people and teams to effectively communicate and deal with any setbacks or conflicts that might arise. “The challenges included not only achieving the high levels of results demanded but also successfully engaging all involved in significantly different ways of thinking and working.” Tony Stante said the bypass portion of the project was opened to traffic seven months ahead of deadline.
Deborah Kiers
“This would not have been possible without the overall support, one-on-one coaching, team and large group facilitation, and continually insightful consulting and guidance from JMW. “The team takes great pride from its achievements as supported by numerous 3rd party awards including the 2011 Safe Work Australia Award; Best Workplace Safety System awarded at Parliament House in Canberra.”
MANAGING DIRECTOR – MIKE MILNE PH 1800-980-353
FEATURE
Multi-million dollar plant upgrade drives Victoria to low carbon fast lane On Wednesday, 20 March, Mark Birrell, Citywide Chairman, and Arron Wood, Councillor for the City of Melbourne, launched the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Citywide’s North Melbourne asphalt plant. The plant, which incorporates leading edge German technology, is the most environmentally sustainable in Australia, capable of producing some of the greenest asphalt in the southern hemisphere. The redeveloped plant will supply a full range of sustainable asphalt products to City of Melbourne and Victoria-wide infrastructure projects helping governments to achieve emission reduction targets. The plant incorporates low emissions technology and increased asphalt recycling capacity, resulting in less carbon along the supply chain: from quarrying, transport, production and paving. The Citywide facility is the first of its kind in Australia to utilise innovative technology developed by German industrial company, Benninghoven. From North Melbourne, Citywide supplies Victorian infrastructure companies and councils with low carbon, market-ready products that exceed VicRoads standards. “If Victorian communities expect to achieve zero carbon emissions targets, they must make lower emission asphalt a priority,” said Citywide Managing Director, Kerry Osborne. “There are well over 150,000 kilometres of bitumen roads across urban Victoria,” he said. “Our low emissions production, Greenpave and Recycled Asphalt Product (RAP) products make every kilometre of road an opportunity to facilitate economic growth while achieving emissions targets.” Citywide’s low emission asphalt products, offered at competitive price points, ensure the roads to environmental and economic sustainability head in the same direction. 8
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Citywide is a major Australian physical services company providing civil infrastructure, open space and environmental services to government and private enterprise. Those wishing to find out more about Citywide’s suite of environmentally friendly asphalt solutions are encouraged to visit www.citywide.com.au. Why upgrade? From its inception in 1995, innovation has been pivotal to Citywide’s success. Pioneering innovative technology to assist in the production of environmentally friendly asphalt, Citywide’s plant is the first asphalt batching parallel drum facility in Australia capable of heating then utilising reclaimed/recycled asphalt in the manufacture of high quality asphalt product. Not only does this new technology ensure the quality of the plant’s product is maintained at the highest standards, it also includes improvements to the plant’s refining and processing capabilities when handling feed stock materials. This upgrade allows for the creation of an asphalt product with no compromise on quality or consistency. As the batching plant maintains a controlled production environment, it will consistently exceed the quality standards of Vic Roads. The Green Advantage Citywide now operates the first batching plant in Australia capable of deploying technology to allow a much greater use of reclaimed/ recycled asphalt in the production of asphalt, thus reducing the plant’s dependence on raw materials, and lessening its impact on the environment. Additionally, the batching plant’s technology guarantees surety of quality and consistency of product capable of meeting and/or exceeding the highest standards.
Sustainable Solututions are for the people we care about.
Growing children deserve a cleaner environment. Responding to community and government concerns over the sustainability of our environment, Citywide is proud to deliver Greenpave - an advanced, easy to use and highly resilient warm asphalt mix. Produced at Citywide’s North Melbourne Asphalt plant - the most environmentally sensitive asphalt facility in the Southern Hemisphere, Greenpave answers the call for the creation of healthier and greener communities. Greenpave has been successfully laid throughout metropolitan Melbourne, reducing harmful Co2 emissions to the equivalent of 1.6 million black balloons. > 30% reduction in fume emissions > 30% reduction in C02 emissions > Energy savings of up to 35% > Reduction of process temperatures of approximately 60C
Greenpave – safer GREENER asphalt.
citywide@citywide.com.au
www.citywide.com.au
FEATURE
The benefits of this facility include: Reducing dependence on raw materials such as aggregates/ bitumen (resource conservation); 2. A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacture of the asphalt; 3. A dramatic reduction in the utilisation of landfill; 4. A reduction in energy consumption; 5. Assist Local Government achieve its ‘Zero Net Emissions by 2020’ policy; 6. Citywide will have the capacity to produce a consistent and high quality product that complies with all VicRoads asphalt requirements and standards; 7. Will allow for the creation of carbon neutral roads; 8. Surety of quality and consistency of product is guaranteed through the technology deployed in the upgraded batching plant; 9. The plant will operate at quality standards far greater to other plants in the Southern Hemisphere; and 10. Utilizing an internationally proven technology to benefit Australian roads and communities. 1.
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Innovation Citywide’s technology partner, Benninghoven, build a range of specialised recycling equipment to aid the processing and reuse of RAP material to the asphalt industry. To create a high quality asphalt with a high level of recycled content, Benninghoven has developed the use of a parallel recycling drum technology, allowing the creation of a high quality asphalt product that is “greener” and environmentally more responsible than any other asphalt product on the market. The materials to be recycled (RAP) are firstly graded into different fractions i.e. 0-8 mm and 8-22mm and then stored under cover to keep the moisture levels as low as possible. After a period of time, the material is then loaded into specially designed hoppers fitted with variable speed feeders that meter the correct ratio of fine and coarse product into the plant. A number of belt weighers are used to check and confirm the correct blend and percentage of material is entering the system at any given time. The material is then conveyed by an enclosed belt conveyor to an elevated drying drum that is fed by a continuous supply of RAP material from the inclined conveyor. This dryer drum operates on a uni-flow principle with the materials gently heated in the process up to a final discharge temperature in the region of 130 C. Blue smoke is eliminated by the design of special flights within the drum that rake the material along its length and inhibit this from occurring. As the material moves down the drum, it is warmed and prepared for mixing with all aggregates. This process ensures the highest transfer of heat to the RAP material is achieved and the least amount of emissions are generated. The heated Reclaimed Asphalt is then collected in an electrically heated and insulated surge bin. From here, the required material is weighed off in batches and added to the pugmill by a special shaped chute with low friction lining and releasing agents being applied as required. If required, all exhaust gases from the system can be reintroduced into the drying process of the virgin drum. This utilises the energy of the hot gases bringing the system to the highest level of efficiency. Benninghoven have over 300 similar systems deployed in various countries across the globe.
Canberra urged: ‘get real’ on the Great Ocean Road The G21 Group of councils in Victoria has called on the Federal Government to “get real” on the Great Ocean Road by taking partial responsibility for maintaining one of the biggest tourism drawcards in Australia. “The federal government is falling short of its responsibilities to the Great Ocean Road and surrounding communities,” G21 CEO, Elaine Carbines said. “The federal government doesn’t directly contribute any funding to maintenance of the internationally-recognised tourism drive, which is the life-blood to towns and communities all along the coast.
“The federal government doesn’t directly contribute any funding to maintenance of the internationallyrecognised tourism drive, which is the life-blood to towns and communities all along the coast.“ G21 CEO, Elaine Carbines
“The government needs to front up and take some financial responsibility. At the moment they’re missing in action,” Ms Carbines said. “The Great Ocean Road is a cherished national asset which earns the economy $2.1 billion a year, yet our governments between them can’t find $10 million a year for essential maintenance. “The state government at least contributes about $3.5million annually for the road’s upkeep through VicRoads, but that’s not enough to maintain the road to an adequate standard.” Ms Carbines welcomed the commitment of Victoria’s Transport Minister, Terry Mulder, to continue pushing Canberra for funding. “But Mr Mulder’s case would be much stronger if he publicly released the VicRoads ‘Great Ocean Road Management Strategy’ completed in 2012, which G21 understands sets out the true condition of the road, including its gradual deterioration,” Ms Carbines said. “Canberra seems to need evidence as to why it should contribute maintenance funds to the road, so let’s give them evidence. “G21 believes Canberra should include the Great Ocean Road in the National Land Transport Network, making the road eligible for federal funding,” Ms Carbines said. In a letter to G21, Minister Mulder said he understood the Federal Government was “reluctant to make additions to the National Land Transport Network”. However, Minister Mulder committed the Victorian government to continue to advocate to Canberra for funding. “The Victorian Government recognises the iconic nature of this historic road. With over seven million people visiting this road and attractions along its coastline annually, the road contributes to the social and economic prosperity of Victoria and Australia,” Minister Mulder wrote to G21. Official figures (VicRoads) show the Great Ocean Road needs a minimum of $10 million a year, for at least five years (total $50 million), for maintenance and upgrade works to bring it up to standard.
The figures are taken from the Great Ocean Road Destination Management Plan – Feb 2012, released jointly by the state and federal governments. Ms Carbines said the road had been subjected in recent years to rock slips, closures (including for one week in early 2011), flooding and underlying drainage issues. Geelong Otway Tourism Executive Director, Roger Grant, said there were 7.2 million people who used the road each year. “Of all the international visitors to Victoria, 60 per cent go to the Great Ocean Road, compared to 12 percent to Phillip Island,” Mr Grant said. “Each year Kakadu gets 170,000 tourists and Uluru 252,000. This compares with 1.7 million tourists on the Great Ocean Road to see the Twelve Apostles. Both Kakadu and Uluru are funded by the Federal Government, yet the Great Ocean Road is not,” he said. Ms Carbines said G21 had met with local MPs and federal election candidates, ministers and shadow ministers, seeking support for adequate funding of the road. “The campaign is drawing attention to a problem that the locals have known about for some time. Our politicians have too, but it’s now time for them to act.” Ms Carbines called on people across the region to sign the petition to state and federal ministers, and get a car bumper sticker showing their support. The campaign website and on-line petition is at: www.OMGreatOceanRoad.net ROADS APRIL/MAY 2013
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