Highway Engineering Australia V48.6 April 2017

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Editor’s Column

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Special Features

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Industry News

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Concrete 2017

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Cover Feature: A1 Roadlines Scorpion TMA

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Publisher and Managing Editor Anthony T Schmidt Phone: 1300 EPCGROUP (1300 372 476) Mobile: 0414 788 900 Email: ats@epcgroup.com Deputy Editor Rex Pannell Mobile: 0433 300 106 Email: rex@epcgroup.com National Advertising Sales Manager Yuri Mamistvalov Phone: 1300 EPCGROUP (1300 372 476) Mobile: 0419 339 865 Email: yuri@epcgroup.com Advertising Sales - SA Jodie Chester - G Advertising Mobile: 0439 749 993 Email: jodie@gadvertising.com.au Advertising Sales - WA Licia Salomone - OKeeffe Media Mobile: 0412 080 600 Email: licia@okm.com.au Graphic Design Annette Epifanidis Mobile: 0416 087 412

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ISSN 0046-7391

APRIL/MAY 2017 Volume 48 Number 6

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20 Major Projects 24 Road Safety

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26 Queensland TMR News 30 ACA Corrosion Feature 33 ITS Australia Feature 40 IAP Case Study: Millers Transport

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42 AustStab News 46 AAPA News 48 Asphalt in Focus

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EDITOR’S COLUMN

Meeting our Future Transport Needs

There's no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ solution Dear Readers, In what seems to be becoming an alarming trend, I feel it is particularly important to point out at this early stage that the following comments ARE NOT aimed at any particular political party or person... they are also not a result of any ‘sour grapes’ or disappointment in relation to any particular project or decision.

This editorial is only intended - in a completely non-partisan manner - to once again encourage discussion on what I believe is one of the most critical issues now facing Australia.

Incidentally, as a further aside, I must say that I find it more than a little alarming that it seems to have become necessary to make a ‘non-partisan statement’ prior to making a public comment on any issue - lest I end up with a mountain of vitriolic hate emails!

However, I also believe that avoiding commentary or ignoring obvious issues simply because they have been supposedly drawn along ‘party lines’ is more than the thin edge of the wedge when it comes to stifling freedom of speech or ideas.

In short, because I agree or disagree with a certain idea DOES NOT mean that I support a particular political party or agree with the other ideas/ideals of any political party. I am only attempting (where possible) to highlight what I believe are issues that need addressing.

That said, I can finally get to the point of this editorial - and that is the massive (and ever-increasing) strain under which much of our transport infrastructure is currently operating.

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I feel certain that it will not come as news to any of you that much our transport network infrastructure is now choking under strain of demand... and it is costing us a fortune - both as individuals and as a nation. The inability of our transport networks to cope with demand is costing billions of dollars in lost productivity, fuels, operating costs and negative environmental impacts. And this is not a problem which is going away...

Increasing populations, a growing economy and the associated increased demand for freight will only make things worse for our already over-stretched transport infrastructure - and I’m not only referring to the road network. In most cities, the public transport networks are also massively over-stretched and sadly inadequate in terms of meeting the needs of our growing population and rapidly expanding cities.

Unfortunately, I believe one of the biggest hurdles that needs to be overcome, is the ‘either/or’ attitude that seems to prevail when discussions of transport needs are raised.

Better Roads (a well-designed, expanded and improved road network) WILL reduce congestion and increase efficiency and productivity. Better Public Transport WILL reduce congestion, lower emissions and remove commuters from the road network.

These are both facts that are supported by hard evidence from across Australia and around the world. Be that as it may, I don’t believe that we can sacrifice one mode of transportation for the other.

At this point I will reiterate that I am a big believer in the need for an efficient public

transport network, however, in reality, the size and expanding nature of our cities, together with people’s work and travel habits, and issues such as ‘door-to-door’ transport requirements, mean that for many people, public transport is simply not an option. They have no choice other than to use a private vehicle.

With that in mind, I believe that it is abundantly clear that WE NEED BOTH a high quality public transport network AND high quality road infrastructure. One or the other is simply not an option for our rapidly expanding population and economy. After all, there is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ transport solution.

Expensive... sure. Good value... definitely!

Anthony T Schmidt Managing Editor

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK! We value your opinion and welcome your feedback and input.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

Key report identifies opportunities for Australia’s transport technology industry

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benchmark report produced for ITS Australia reviews the nation’s smart transport technology industry and identifies seven key areas of opportunity for the sector.

The seven key areas highlighted in the Smart Transport for Australia Report will provide a platform for safer, more efficient and sustainable transport around Australia.

“We see the report being used by ITS Australia and its members to set in place where we think Federal and State Governments should head with the use of smart technology, and how they should go about integrating it into the transport system,” said Brian Negus, ITS Australia President.

“We also see it guiding developments that will occur in the manufacturing and research sectors. The key is to bring those three elements together to make sure we achieve the best results for the community.”

ITS Australia CEO, Susan Harris, said the report represented a major step forward for the industry.

“The ITS sector has been quite disparate, so bringing the facets of it together in one report really helps to present it as a legitimate and a consolidated industry,” Ms Harris contended.

“The report has given us a real presence and a real voice, and to have it sitting across government, industry and academic institutions is really unique in the world.

“It reinforces the great credibility our industry has at an international level.”

The Report leverages off last year’s Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress in Melbourne, attended by more than 11,500 delegates from 73 countries. The Congress connected Australian governments, businesses, researchers and start-ups with international organisations.

The seven key areas for opportunity that Smart Transport for Australia identifies are: • Pathways to Connected Autonomy; • Mobility for Smart Cities and Communities; • Next Generation Public Transport and Mobility as a Service; • Big Data, Analytics, Ownership and Access; • Future Freight; • Transport Pricing and Funding; and • Frameworks for Success.

The report was produced by ITS Australia and Fivenines Consulting, sourcing information from Congress presentations and papers, and interaction with the ITS Australia Board.

In addition, on-site face-to-face interviews were conducted with industry thought-leaders, providing authentic insights based on industry knowledge and experience.

Mr Negus said Big Data, Analytics, Ownership and Access was a key issue globally.

“Analytics is critical; you really need to undertake detailed analysis because most data of itself isn’t all that useful. The important factor is how you dissect the data into key areas you’re trying to confront.

“Data ownership is also important because as a vehicle owner, for example, your data is currently looked at as being the property of the manufacturer.

“However, we would have the view – a view shared by most community organisations – that the core of the ownership of the data and its use rests with the vehicle owner.

4 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

“The vehicle owner should have the ability to use the data as he/she sees fit; not have someone else make that decision for them.”

In reference to the key area “Frameworks for Success”, Mr Negus said the focus was on the regulations that were needed to ensure technology solutions could work properly.

“You need to ensure the regulations are not too prescriptive because you can easily kill innovation by over-regulating the sector.

“We want governments around the country to agree to set in place a performance-based framework and not be too prescriptive about what widget software manufacturers need to use.

“We’re heartened by the fact that the Federal Government is heading along that line on this issue.”

Mr Negus said one of the major themes was future freight, given that Australia was such a big country and relied so heavily on its freight networks, along the same lines as the United States.

“We have to look at how we use smart technology to improve the freight sector, especially in terms of its safety and its connectivity with other parts of the transport network.”

Mr Negus said the report was prepared to take advantage of the knowledge of the many experts from around the world attending Melbourne 2016; to utilise that knowledge to improve safety, transport and mobility.

“We didn’t want to let the event pass without making sure we understood the key elements and initiatives that were happening around the world; how they related to Australia and how we can best use smart technology to improve community well-being and liveability.

“Initiatives that would be pursued by ITS Australia members, the business community, the government sector and researchers to make sure they made the best of technical solutions” Mr Negus said Australia was in a unique position to harness technology to enhance the liveability of our cities and communities.

“Australia is a global leader in transport technology and an early adopter of innovation and initiatives.

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ITS Australia CEO, Susan Harris and ITS Australia President, Brian Negus, launching the new Smart Transport for Australia report.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

“Utilising technology and real time data, in a shared and open environment, provides an opportunity to improve safety, reduce congestion and pollution on our networks, and increase mobility,” Mr Negus said.

ITS Australia CEO, Susan Harris, says Congress presenters and contributors to the report provided a rich source of information, and assisted with the identification of future areas of opportunity.

“The Australian ITS industry already enjoys a strong global reputation and is a significant contributor to the economy.

“This Report explores future opportunities to be smart in the development and deployment of technology-based transport outcomes for the years ahead.

“The benefits for Australia are clearly recognised with nearly every Australian state currently trialling a connected and automated vehicle initiative, including highly automated vehicles and driverless shuttle buses providing last-mile solutions.

“Mobility as a Service, Big Data, the Internet of Things, national harmonisation of legislation and future funding models are among the myriad ideas being pursued to improve connectivity and mobility for freight, public and private transport users.

“What is exciting is that while we have come a long way, there is still a lot more to come.”

Ms Harris said ITS Australia would look at meeting over the coming 12 months with key political figures to discuss the report and leverage its recommendations.

“We’ll be convening meetings with selected politicians, bureaucrats and key thought leaders around the country to discuss and understand the issues raised in the report.

“The report will also be used to inform ITS Australia’s program of events here during 2017 and will be showcased internationally highlighting the expertise we have in Australia in the ITS space.

“It is a significant document and will maintain the conversation on the areas of opportunity for the next few years. We’re really looking forward to stepping up our conversations about the key themes during our interaction with government and industry,” Ms Harris said.

Brian Negus said it had been a delight to be associated with the report and an honour to be President of ITS Australia at the time it brought the ITS World Congress to Melbourne.

“This report sets a direction for the way forward; this is the way society needs to move to ensure it achieves the best outcomes.”

For a copy of Smart Transport for Australia, visit: www.its-australia.com.au

6 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

Creating a national freight and supply chain strategy A panel of transport industry experts has been appointed to help the Australian Government to develop a blueprint for infrastructure investment in the 21st century.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Darren Chester, released on 9 March the terms of reference for the Inquiry into Freight and Supply Chain Productivity.

Mr Chester said the inquiry would support the delivery of the National Freight and Supply Chain strategy by outlining how existing infrastructure could be best utilised and guide future investment.

“The government has a record $50 billion infrastructure program rolling out across Australia and this strategy will assist in making long-term infrastructure decisions that will reduce congestion, improve productivity, and create jobs,” Mr Chester said.

“The Terms of Reference will provide the scope of this inquiry for the expert panel to ensure we develop the evidence-base we need to deliver a suitable national strategy.

“During an address to the Australian Logistics Council dinner, I was pleased to announce the expert panel members to advise on the development of the strategy.”

The senior industry panel experts are: • Maurice James – Managing Director of Qube; • Nicole Lockwood – Principal of Lockwood Advisory, Board of Infrastructure Australia; and • Marika Calfas – CEO of NSW Ports.

Mr Chester said the National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy was a key recommendation by Infrastructure Australia in the recently launched Australian Infrastructure Plan.

"The effective movement of freight goes hand-in-hand with our national prosperity and opportunity for job growth," Mr Chester said.

"The inquiry will draw on a significant amount of work completed already, including the National Ports Strategy, National Land Freight Strategy, and current state and territory freight/port strategies and plans".

The draft inquiry will be shared with industry and government for comment in late

2017, with the final report due by early 2018.

Minister Chester also welcomed an Austroads report – Investigating the potential benefits of enhanced end-to-end supply chain visibility – on the adoption of advanced technologies to make freight movements more visible from one end of the supply chain to the other.

He said the findings of the Austroads' report were in line with the government's commitment to develop a comprehensive national freight and supply chain strategy.

“Improving the ability of businesses to keep track of freight from the time an item leaves the farm or factory gate until it is delivered, is crucial to improving the operational efficiency of supply chains in Australia.

“To help make this a reality, we will be asking the independent inquiry into the establishment of the National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy to consider Austroads' findings.”

Mr Chester said the report involved several major pilot studies examining how the adoption of “visibility” technologies using Global Data Standards (GDS), enabled all stakeholders in a supply chain to keep track of freight.

“Austroads' pilot studies showed that larger transport businesses which have adopted GDS-based technologies effectively build a capability to create connectivity and improve visibility throughout their supply chains.

“This may increase costs over the shortterm for smaller transport operators given the complexities of adopting the new GDS-based technologies, but those same operators will definitely see the benefits over the long term.

“The Australian Government is committed to the establishment and work of the inquiry to establish a National Freight and Supply Chain Strategy, which is due for completion

by December 2017.”

The Minister thanked GS1 Australia, the Australian Logistics Council Supply Chain Standards Working Group and the Institute for Supply Chain and Logistics for their significant contributions to the development of the report.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

Road Trauma Rising – the personal and financial costs

A

submission to Federal Parliamentarians urging them to take action to reduce the increasing rate of road trauma in Australia contains four key points for the Australian Government to address.

The submission by the Australasian College of Road Safety (ACRS) highlights the fact that the 25 deaths and 700 hospitalised injuries experienced on Australian roads each week cost more than $32 billion a year.

The document – 2017 ACRS Submission to Federal Parliamentarians – The way forward to reduce road trauma – was released in the first week of March by ACRS President, Lauchlan McIntosh.

It importantly outlines Australia's stalled progress against National Road Safety Strategy 2011-2020 targets for death and injury reduction, the multi-portfolio impacts of road trauma across the spectrum of federal departments, and presents comprehensive recommendations on the way forward to reduce road trauma.

"Road trauma has insidiously pervaded our society to such an extent that there now seems to be an acceptance that this huge and growing burden of 25 deaths and 700 hospitalised injuries every week is the price we must pay for our mobility. This is just not the case," said Mr McIntosh.

"The College brings together global and national expertise across the full spectrum of road safety, and our best minds have come together to develop and support our submission where we outline recommendations to expedite trauma reductions."

The submission outlines four key recommendations/points underpinning future road trauma reductions and calls for unanimous support across the political spectrum to reject the rise in deaths and hospitalised injuries.

Key Point 1 The Australasian College of Road Safety calls on all Federal MPs to unanimously reject the current increasing rate of road death and injury, and commit to the ultimate goal of eliminating fatalities and serious injuries on the road.

Key Point 2 The ACRS calls on the Federal Government to task the Productivity Commission with undertaking an inquiry into the impact of road trauma on Australia’s productivity and the national investment and policy decisions required to achieve the nation’s policy goals of a safe road transport system.

Key Point 3 The ACRS calls on the government to: • Make the publication of targeted safety star ratings on the National Road Network a condition for any Commonwealth investment in the network from 2017/18 onward; • Undertake a full policy review in 2017/18 of how to leverage greater safety results from its current investment in road transport; and

8 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

• Ensure all new vehicles (cars, vans, motorcycles, buses and trucks) are equipped with world best practice safety technology and meet world best practice crash-worthiness.

Key Point 4 The ACRS calls on the government to establish a six-monthly forum for national stakeholders seeking to support significant improvements in road safety. The purpose of the forum would be to review progress in road safety at a national level, and discuss key initiatives for significantly improving results.

"I'd like to thank our supporters, the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Carers Australia, and the Australian Automobile Association as peak representative bodies joining with us to emphasise the extreme importance of the issue of road trauma across our entire society," said Mr McIntosh.

"In combination, our supporting organisations represent around 10 million Australians - that's 10 million of our citizens urging our elected federal representatives to unanimously reject the current increasing rate of road death and injury."

Dr Philip Truskett, President of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, said he strongly supported the concerted effort towards reducing road trauma.

"Each week there are 25 deaths and 700 serious injuries on our roads; that's 1,300 deaths and 37,000 hospitalised injuries per year.

“Seen first-hand by our surgeons, this has an enormous impact on Australia's health system as a whole. The College supports all evidencebased initiatives that assist in the prevention of road trauma and the reduction of the devastating effects of injury".

Carers Australia CEO, Ara Cresswell, said families experienced firsthand the tragedy of deaths and the impact of serious injuries sustained in road accidents.

“Every day too many ordinary Australian families will become a caring family – this means that one or more family members will need to change their own way of life to provide support – including emotional, personal, clinical and financial – to the injured person.

“Australian and international research indicates that these carers are likely to have significantly lower health and well-being (including social and financial) than non-carers and this impact increases with the duration of their caring responsibility.”

Michael Bradley, CEO of the Australian Automobile Association, said making roads safer was central to the work of the AAA along with the College.

“In 2011, all Australian governments agreed to the National Road Safety Strategy to reduce road deaths and trauma by 30 per cent by 2020. But with 1,300 killed on Australia’s roads in 2016, a 7.9 per cent increase, AAA analysis shows that almost no progress has been made in reducing deaths since the strategy was agreed.

“At a time when new vehicles and roads have never been safer, we need to understand why 40 years of improvement is being reversed.

“With 1,300 dead and tens-ofthousands more now dealing with life-changing injury as a result of crashes in 2016, the human cost is immense.

Additionally, the annual cost to our economy is around $34 billion.

“This level of death, injury, and cost cannot be accepted and we must continue to work to uncover the causes of the rising levels of road trauma and reverse this trend.”

INDUSTRY NEWS

Infrastructure Australia’s 100 priority projects Major transport infrastructure projects feature highly among 100 projects and initiatives identified as national priorities in a newly revised Infrastructure Priority List prepared by Infrastructure Australia.

The Infrastructure Priority List is the authoritative list of nationally-significant infrastructure investments Australia needs over the next 15 years.

Based on data from the Australian Infrastructure Audit and extensive consultation with State and Territory Governments, the list provides independent, evidence-based advice on the projects that will most benefit Australian communities.

“This is the infrastructure that Australia needs to boost our quality of life and our economy,” said Infrastructure Australia Chairman, Mark Birrell.

“The Infrastructure Priority List identifies 100 major infrastructure proposals that have substantial strategic merit and national importance.

“The newly revised list features projects in urban centres and across the country that will improve connectivity and productivity.

“It now includes seven High Priority and 11 Priority Projects, and the highest ever number of projects with approved business cases.”

Mr Birrell said Infrastructure Australia had added another important project in the Western Sydney Priority Growth Area, the Northern Road Upgrade, to the Priority List.

“After the Infrastructure Australia Board's recent approval of the business cases for Western Sydney Airport and Stage 2 of the Bringelly Road Upgrade, the addition of this project is another important step in harnessing the expected population and employment growth in Western Sydney.

“The progressive upgrade of the Bruce Highway in Queensland has long been recognised by Infrastructure Australia as a national priority.

10 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

“Following rigorous assessment by our Board, upgrades to the Cooroy to Curra and Mackay Ring Road sections of the Bruce Highway are now listed as Priority Projects.

We look forward to receiving and assessing business cases for the remaining sections of the Highway,” Mr Birrell said.

The updated Priority List also includes 25 High Priority Initiatives and 57 Priority Initiatives. These are proposals that have been identified to potentially address a nationally-significant problem, but require further development.

New High Priority Initiatives on the List include mass transit options for Parramatta to Sydney CBD and the remaining sections of Ipswich Motorway Rocklea-Darra in Queensland.

The redevelopment of Sydney's Central Station (NSW) and Brisbane to Gold Coast Transport Corridor Upgrades (QLD) are also listed as Priority Initiatives.

Infrastructure Australia advises on national infrastructure priorities and assesses the economic merits of projects with fully-developed business cases. All funding decisions are made by the governments or the private sector.

Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Darren Chester, welcomed the addition of the Bruce Highway Upgrade – Mackay Ring Road and Cooroy to Curra projects to Infrastructure Australia's Infrastructure Priority List (IPL) as Priority Projects.

“The addition of these two significant projects to the Priority List further supports the Australian Government's decision to invest in these crucial upgrades,” Mr Chester said.

“Upgrading the Bruce Highway is part of our commitment to improve road safety and reduce the national road toll and I welcome IA's tick of approval for the Mackay Ring Road—Stage 1 project.

“The government has committed up to $448 million towards delivering the project, which will address capacity constraints and increase the safety and freight efficiency of the region's road network by removing heavy vehicle traffic from the Mackay City Centre and residential areas.

“Likewise, the addition of the Cooroy to Curra Section C project to the Priority List underlines the importance of our commitment of up to $307.4 million towards the project.

“The inclusion of these projects on the Infrastructure Priority List demonstrates the important work undertaken by IA in prioritising nationally significant infrastructure,” said Minister Chester.

Production underway on Melbourne’s elevated train line A purpose-built factory at Pakenham – 56 kilometres south east of Melbourne – is creating hundreds of jobs to build the new elevated train line that will remove nine of Victoria’s worst level crossings.

Employees at the 13,000 square metre facility are building concrete segments for the Victorian Government’s Caulfield to Dandenong Level Crossing Removal Project.

Work at the facility is reaching peak production – with 200 local concreters, steel fixers, welders and plant operators producing up to 17 concrete segments every day.

During the factory’s construction, 100 jobs were also created to build it from scratch to manufacture the concrete segments.

Approximately 2,200 of the 26-tonne segments will be trucked to Murrumbeena on the busy Cranbourne-Pakenham line and lifted into place by gantry cranes, which are 150 metres long and 10 storeys high.

A second precast facility at Melton – 35 kilometres to Melbourne’s west – will produce the concrete piers that will support the elevated structure.

The $1.6 billion project will remove nine dangerous and congested level crossings, build five new stations, create large areas of open space and provide 2,000 jobs.

Wade Noonan, Victoria’s Minister Industry and Employment, said it included a 92 per cent local content requirement and the condition that all steel products used are made from locally milled steel by local fabricators.

“By setting strict requirements for local content on major projects, and putting more apprentices and trainees into work, we’re making sure Victorians reap the benefits of our investments.”

INDUSTRY NEWS

Further road improvements in the APY Lands Work has started on building 43 kilometres of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Main Access Road in South Australia’s APY Lands.

A $21.4 million contract covering a section of the Main Access Road between Pukatja (Ernabella) and Umuwa has been awarded to Toll Mining Services.

Preliminary onsite works started in February and are scheduled to be completed in the last quarter of 2017.

The project includes the formation and sheeting of 43 kilometres of new pavement, mainly along the existing alignment. There will be some realignment on the adjacent natural surface and improvements to drainage.

The works are part of the upgrade of 210 kilometres of the Main Access Road and 21 kilometres of community access roads between the Stuart Highway and Pukatja (Ernabella) in the APY Lands.

The project aims to improve living standards of the local Anangu by providing better access to essential services and facilities, along with reduced travel times and vehicle operating costs.

The contract awarded to Toll Mining Services is expected to support an estimated 55 jobs. It is in line with the South Australian Government's commitment, in consultation with the APY Executive Board, to ensure a minimum of 30 per cent of total on-site labour hours be undertaken by local Anangu. This is in addition to the $9.7 million of contracts already awarded as part of the $106.25 million project, which has seen around 34 per cent of total on-site construction hours undertaken by Anangu.

The project is due for completion in mid-2019.

Image Courtesy: SA Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure

12 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

Opening opportunities in the transport sector to women An ambitious new plan has been unveiled to attract more women to Victoria’s transport sector.

The Women in Transport program was launched on 9 March by the state’s Minister for Public Transport, Jacinta Allan, and Minister for Roads and Ports, Luke Donnellan. The program will fund scholarships for women to study transport-related degrees and provide a range of apprenticeships, traineeships and cadetships to attract 150 more women to the sector annually.

It aims to increase the number of women working in the transport sector from 16 per cent to 25 per cent by 2020.

The $1 million program will also set targets to increase the number of women in senior and leadership roles in the transport industry to support and mentor young women through their careers.

Minister Allan said major transport contracts already included gender equality procurement guidelines, making sure equality is a priority for organisations, suppliers and agencies working with the government.

“Thanks to our huge pipeline of major projects the transport sector is booming and we want more women to be a part of it.

“We believe the transport system that moves the Victorian community should also reflect the Victorian community – right now it doesn’t and this program is about changing that.”

Mr Donnellan said the government needed to ensure the benefits of its record investment in transport were shared between men and women.

“Through the program, we will attract hundreds of talented women to this growing sector to help us build a better transport system for Victoria.”

For more information visit: transport.vic.gov.au/more-women.

Improving the efficiency of South Australia’s B-double network Work is getting underway on a heavy vehicle bypass at Eudunda in South Australia on one of the reforms from a 90-day transport project which has already saved the agricultural industry more than $50 million in transport costs.

The bypass – about 100 kilometres north east of Adelaide – will link the Worlds End and Thiele highways, filling what has been described as a “missing link” in South Australia’s 26-metre B-double network.

It will also upgrade access to the Viterra grain silo and bunker sites. The works will include: • a new road link extending Three Chain Road to the Thiele Highway; • a new junction at the Thiele Highway; • a modified junction at Thiele Highway, South Terrace, Viterra silo access; and • minor junction improvements along the route to the Viterra bunker site.

The works were identified in the Change @ South Australia 90-day project to improve road transport for the agriculture industry.

Primary producers and transport operators are already estimated to have benefitted by at least $56 million from the reforms.

The project was a collaboration between Primary Industries and Regions SA, the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure and Primary Producers SA. State Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Stephen Mullighan, said increasing B-double access and reducing the need for heavy vehicles to travel through Eudunda would significantly improve the efficiency of freight movements, especially for grain.

“This project will also help to improve safety on the roads in and around the Mid North town.”

Concrete 2017, the 28th Biennial National Conference of the Concrete Institute of Australia, will be held in Adelaide at the Adelaide Convention Centre from 22nd October to 25th October 2017. The conference will also be held in conjunction with the 3rd International Congress on Durability of Concrete (ICDC).

The Conference Organising Chairs, Professor Julia Mills and Associate Professor Rebecca Gravina, invite people from both Australia and the rest of the world, to be part of this historic joint event which will provide delegates with valuable exposure to cutting edge research and development as well as the chance to network in a truly international forum. Concrete 2017 will focus on the theme ‘Advances in Concrete Materials and Structures’ and is dedicated to bringing together global leaders in the concrete industry, covering all aspects of concrete design improvements, research, construction, maintenance and repair of concrete projects. The ICDC will also focus on the progress of concrete durability with respect to materials, modelling, specification, and testing. The wonderful array of key note and invited speakers certainly represent the themes associated with Concrete 2017 and ICDC, and will present on topics that show advances in the field of concrete across these topics.

The conference will also offer participants

from around the world the opportunity to connect face to face and share innovative and interesting ideas on valuable research outcomes and latest construction practices with a wide variety of industry experts.

The Chair of the Technical Committee, Mr Tom Benn from the University of South Australia, noted “We were overwhelmed by the number of abstracts we received, both locally and from overseas. We will only accept quality technical papers for the Conference, but the standard has been extremely high and the program will be prepared to ensure that the delegates get to hear from as many authors as possible”.

The multidisciplinary theme of Concrete 2017 will provide an excellent forum for networking and education and an opportunity to meet and interact with practitioners, engineers, scientists, researchers, academics, practitioners and professionals, and also to engage with international delegates connected with ICDC and in the durability field. Whether you attend technical sessions, sit in on multiple committee meetings or network with friends and colleagues, this conference will provide you with ample opportunity for professional growth.

The Organising Committee and the Concrete Institute of Australia look forward to meeting you at Concrete 2017 and the 3rd ICDC in Adelaide.

DELEGATE REGISTRATION IS OPEN Registration for Concrete 2017 and 3rd ICDC is open and can be made via the conference web site www.concrete2017.com.au. Early Bird registration is available but you need to hurry – this closes on 26th June 2017.

There are many categories of registration available, as well as significant discounts for CIA Members. There are also reduced fee options available to Young Industry Professionals, Academics, Retired CIA Members and Students.

Don’t miss out - Early Bird Registration Fees close on 26th June 2017.

14 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

Keynote Speakers Professor Tim Ibell

Professor Karen Scrivener

Ms Louise Adams

Mr Peter McBean

Professor Doug Hooton

Professor Des Bull

Invited Speakers Dr Stuart Matthews

Mr Mike Schneider

Conference Registration Now Open

Concrete 2017 includes

Early Bird Registration pricing will close 26 June 2017

• • • • •

Quality Technical Program Cement and Durability Workshops Huge Trade Exhibition Gala “Awards for Excellence in Concrete” Dinner Social and Networking Events

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16 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

When it comes to providing work zone protection from vehicular impacts, the performance and reliability of the safety equipment being used is of paramount importance.

Put simply, choosing the right safety equipment can literally be a matter of life or death, and the cost of a serious injury or fatality will far outweigh any financial savings that could be made as a result of choosing equipment based primarily on the purchase price.

The state-of-the-art Scorpion® TMA (Truck Mounted Attenuator) has been leading the way in work zone safety for over a decade, and has gained an enviable reputation for providing outstanding worksite protection for workers and motorists alike.

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Distributed exclusively throughout Australia by traffic control, linemarking and safety equipment specialists A1 Roadlines, the Scorpion® truck-mounted crash attenuators deliver outstanding impact protection.

Successfully tested to meet the strict requirements of NCHRP 350 Test Level 3 (TL3) for impact speeds of up to 100km/h, the Scorpion® crash attenuators provide protection from impacts by errant vehicles with weights of up to 2,000kg.

The Scorpion® TMA’s consist of strut and cartridge sections linked together on a support frame. The unit’s curved side rails are manufactured from corrosion resistant aluminium tubing, and provide full-width protection along the entire length of the attenuator. The side rails have been specifically designed to absorb energy from severe impacts, whilst also redirecting the impacting vehicle away from the rear of the truck.

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In the event of an impact, the Scorpion® TMA has been designed to crush in progressive stages according to the severity. When impacted at low speed, or by a lighter vehicle (up to 820kg) travelling up to 100km/h, the impact energy is absorbed by the ‘cartridge’. During major impacts (up to 100km/h by vehicles weighing up to 2,000kg) the energy is absorbed by both the ‘cartridge’ and ‘strut’ sections of the attenuator.

As well as playing a significant role in its performance during an impact, the Scorpion® TMA’s ‘modular’ design also plays a major role in helping to reduce the cost of repairs (particularly after moderate impacts and/or in the event of accidental damage) with only the damaged components requiring replacement.

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• Safety • Quality • Performance •

MAJOR PROJECTS

Major infrastructure push in South Australia A record number of South Australians will be working on public infrastructure projects in 2017, as part of the State Government’s $12.1 billion investment in infrastructure.

New major projects valued at more than $1.5 billion and supporting more than 1,300 jobs are starting in 2017, including a number of major transport developments: • $238m Torrens Rail Junction and Mike Turtur Bikeway overpass; • $152.4m Gawler electrification; • $85.5m Flinders link extension; • $70m AdeLINK Tram extension; • $55m Gawler East Link Road; and • $32m Upper Yorke Peninsula Road Network upgrade.

The developments are in addition to the more than 130 infrastructure projects already underway as part of the government’s $12.1 billion investment over the next four years including: • $985m Northern Connector; • $896m Torrens Road to River Torrens upgrade; • $620m Darlington Upgrade; • $160m O-Bahn City Access Project; • $106.25m APY Lands Main Access Road; and • $110m additional road maintenance and shoulder sealing.

South Australia’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Stephen Mullighan, said the state was experiencing a once-in-a-generation infrastructure investment as it delivered the roads, light rail, schools and hospitals SA needed.

Mr Mullighan said the government wanted to ensure the benefits of the $12.1 billion infrastructure program extended beyond the

20 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

delivery of major projects by helping more South Australians find work.

“Our industry participation policy is ensuring our record infrastructure investment provides new job opportunities for South Australians and helps existing workers learn new skills.

“2017 promises to be another year of major achievements and milestones for the government, with billions of dollars of investment in public infrastructure,” said the Minister.

“These vital transport, infrastructure and urban development projects, such as the billions being spent upgrading the NorthSouth Corridor, will generate enormous benefits in terms of economic activity and job creation.”

Five key projects in Queensland road package Five major roads projects valued at more than half-a-billion dollars can move ahead with the finalisation of a roads package between the Australian and Queensland Governments.

The package – covering projects in south east and central Queensland – was announced on 24 March by the two governments. It includes: • six-laning of the Pacific Motorway (M1) – Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes; • a major upgrade of the M1/Gateway Motorway merge (southbound lanes) at Eight Mile Plains; • construction of the Walkerston bypass near Mackay; • widening of the Mt Lindesay Highway between Browns Plains and Beaudesert; and

• funding for the planning of the M1 – Varsity Lakes to Tugun.

Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said the package outcome followed constructive discussions with the Australian Government.

“We have reached an agreement and can now get on with the job of upgrading the M1.

We’ve also committed to construction of the Walkerston Bypass, this will deliver benefits for the region and more jobs for Central Queensland.”

Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Darren Chester, said he was delighted agreement had been reached on five important projects.

“Although final project costs for the M1 will not be known until the end of April, we have reached an agreement that the Australian Government will keep our money on the table with the State picking up the balance,” Mr Chester said.

“The tender processes are expected to bring the cost down, so the final splits will not be known until then. The important thing is we have broken the impasse and will work together to deliver these important projects.”

Queensland Minister for Main Roads and Road Safety, Mark Bailey, said early works on the M1 Gateway Merge project were expected to commence in November 2017, with major construction to begin following the Commonwealth Games.

Mr Bailey said construction for the $150 million Walkerston Bypass would begin following completion of the Mackay Ring Road Stage 1 project, extending the pipeline of local jobs in the Mackay region.

“The Queensland Government is also investing $5 million to progress the planning and business case development for the six-laning of the Pacific Motorway between Varsity Lakes and Tugun; the next highest priority upgrade on the southern end of motorway.”

MAJOR PROJECTS

Two sections of Inland Rail declared ‘coordinated projects’ The second phase of the market testing is close to being finalised for the historic $10 billion Inland Rail project.

While the market testing process continues to decide on the preferred delivery model or approach, the Australian Government is moving ahead with formal assessment and approvals processes to ensure the next stages of the project are ready to roll out.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Darren Chester, said in mid-March that two sections of the potential route had been declared in Queensland as “Coordinated Projects”.

“The declaration of the 26 kilometre, $1.35 billion Gowrie to Helidon section and the 47 kilometre, $1 billion Helidon to Calvert section is a critical part of the planning and assessment stage,” Mr Chester said.

“This means the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) can now start preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for these sections.”

Queensland’s State Development Minister, Anthony Lynham, said the two sections had been declared coordinated projects by the state’s independent Coordinator-General.

“The Coordinator-General can now efficiently coordinate the environmental assessment process for the sections,” Dr Lynham said.

“These adjoining dual-gauge sections could each generate 1800 jobs during their four-year construction phase starting in 2020 and 700 jobs for the 50 years of forecast operation for the entire program.”

Mr Chester said after the market testing had concluded, he was keen to see construction commence sooner than later.

“We believe in the future of regional Australia and the Melbourne to Brisbane inland rail project to deliver benefits today and in 100 years from now.

“The project will deliver a high performance and direct interstate rail corridor between Melbourne and Brisbane, enabling freight operators to avoid the congested Sydney network and deliver goods to market quickly.”

Dr Lynham said inland rail was forecast to reduce rail freight times from Melbourne to Brisbane via Sydney by six hours, as well as reduce the freight task's carbon footprint by 750,000 tonnes per year.

“This project could be a real boon to Queensland industry, for both growers and manufacturers.

“However, both of these sections will require rigorous planning and engineering to address the potential impacts of flooding in the region.”

Metro Tunnel work ramping up

Extensive geotechnical investigations relating to the Metro Tunnel in Melbourne have been completed and major work is about to rampup on the massive public transport project.

Over the past two years, more than 270 boreholes have been drilled up to 50 metres deep along the Metro Tunnel alignment.

The samples collected show the sedimentary rock beneath the city was formed 416-to-440 million years ago.

They provide critical information about ground conditions under the city, which will inform the design and construction of the Metro Tunnel and its five new underground stations.

The samples – comprising nearly 10 kilometres of soil and rock – are being stored at the $10.9 billion project’s huge storage facility in West Melbourne.

Early in April, Melbourne’s City Square will be surrounded by hoarding and closed for several years while construction crews dig more than 11 storeys below the city to build the brand new underground station.

Construction will continue at Franklin and A’Beckett Streets in April, and in-and-around St Kilda Road at Domain.

The acceleration of Metro Tunnel works will coincide with a construction blitz

across Victoria, which will affect services on the Cranbourne-Pakenham, Craigieburn, Frankston, Sandringham and South Morang lines.

There will also be disruptions on a number of regional lines, including the Geelong and Warrnambool lines, which will close in midApril to enable $4.4 million worth of track and signalling works.

Ipswich Motorway Rocklea to Darra Upgrade tender on track Two shortlisted tenderers have submitted bids for the design and construction tender of the $400 million Ipswich Motorway Upgrade from Rocklea to Darra Stage 1.

BMD Constructions Pty Ltd and John Holland Queensland Pty Ltd Joint Venture, and Bielby Hull Albem Joint Venture are vying for the contract which will be awarded in the coming months.

The project involves upgrading the threekilometre section of the motorway between Granard Road and Oxley Road from four to six lanes.

Once completed, the motorway will provide safer, quicker and more reliable journeys for motorists, and improve national and local freight movements.

Queensland Minister for Main Roads and Road Safety, Mark Bailey, said the upgrade was one of South East Queensland’s most significant road projects.

“This brings us a step closer to alleviating congestion which is a major source of frustration for the 85,000 road users who travel along the Ipswich Motorway daily.

“Works will also involve raising the motorway bridges across the Oxley Creek area to improve the flood immunity of the corridor. This is a milestone towards our goal of improving traffic flow and keeping people moving.

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 21

MAJOR PROJECTS

“The upgrade is part of our broader strategy to improve transport networks and it supports the expansion of the existing Acacia Ridge freight intermodal terminal, and further plans to develop the Western Corridor between Brisbane and Ipswich,” Mr Bailey said.

The project will support up to 470 jobs – it is jointly funded with the Australian and Queensland Governments each committing $200 million.

Motorists will be able to travel on the two-lane divided highway for five kilometres in both directions bypassing the Foxground bends.

Light rail to improve Parramatta’s transport options

“Customers won’t have to wait long for a service, they’ll tap on with Opal and board with ease and comfort,” Mr Constance said.

“There’ll also be extra services for special events and we are planning for the system as a whole to be capable of carrying 10,000 people an hour.”

Planning work for stage two of the project, from Camellia to Strathfield via Sydney Olympic Park is expected to be finalised by the end of 2017.

Bypass in southern NSW ahead of schedule

Perth Link Roads project to start this year

A key section of the $580 million Foxground and Berry bypass in southern New South Wales is expected to open ahead of schedule before Christmas 2017.

The 12.5-kilometre upgrade in Berry will improve safety and travel time for the 19,400 motorists travelling daily on the highway.

It is expected to save up to seven minutes travel time, reduce crashes by about 64 per cent and improve the safety of Berry’s pedestrians.

Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said the Berry bypass would be completed six months early and would include the completion of the 610-metre bridge at Berry, allowing highway motorists to bypass the Berry township.

“This upgrade gives the people of Berry back their town and will also be a huge boost to improving road safety and travel times for motorists,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“Since the first sod was turned just over two years ago, remarkable progress has been made and, by Christmas this year, motorists will be travelling on around 10-kilometres of new highway with two lanes in each direction.”

Another key component of the upgrade, the five-kilometre Foxground bypass between Toolijooa Road and Austral Park Road, was scheduled be opened to traffic in time for the Easter holidays.

The economy of Northern Tasmania will receive a $120 million economic boost as the largest single project in the 10-year Midland Highway Action Plan is brought forward by two years.

Construction on the Perth Link Roads project will start before the end of the year.

The project is integral to the $500 million Midland Highway Upgrade.

It will connect the current upgrades underway between Symmons Plains and Perth, and from Perth to Breadalbane.

The upgrade works will run from the South Esk River Bridge to the Illawarra Road in the west and connect with the new Perth to Breadalbane section of the Midland Highway north of the town.

The Perth Link Roads project is expected to go to tender in mid-2017. Construction is expected to commence in late 2017 and be completed in 2020. The Australian Government is contributing $400 million and the Tasmanian Government $100 million to upgrade the Midland Highway.

The project will improve connectivity between the south and north of Tasmania and aims to achieve a 3 star AusRAP safety rating standard along its entire length.

Tasmania’s Minister for Infrastructure, Rene Hidding, said work was progressing well on the overall upgrade, with projects at Kempton, Bagdad and Tunbridge expected to be completed in the coming months.

“A project of this size and cost will result in millions being injected back into the economy with numerous flow-on benefits for local businesses.

“Its completion will also increase the productivity of our freight industry by allowing greater volumes of freight between Hobart and the state’s north per day,” Mr Hidding said.

22 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

A new light rail line across Greater Parramatta will give passengers the opportunity to connect to their communities.

Commuters travelling on the Parramatta Light Rail will be able to travel easily to their homes, jobs, hospitals, universities, entertainment hubs, sport stadiums and leisure areas.

The preferred route for the first stage of the Parramatta Light Rail project will join Westmead to Parramatta and Carlingford via Camellia.

Potential stops on the 12-kilometre line will include: • Westmead; • Westmead Hospital; • Children’s Hospital; • Cumberland Hospital; • Factory Street; • Fennell Street; • Prince Alfred Square; • Eat Street; • Parramatta Square; • Harris Street; • Tramway Avenue; • Camellia; • Rydalmere; • Dundas; • Telopea; and • Carlingford.

Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said the proposed 16 accessible stops would operate services from early morning to late at night, every seven-and-a-half minutes throughout the day.

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ROAD SAFETY

Hartley Valley to Forty Bends safety upgrade Since 2014, Roads and Maritime Services NSW has been carrying out extensive work on safety upgrades and road improvements on the Great Western Highway. This upgrade is being carried out in sections to provide road users with a better travelling experience and includes a number of projects which are underway, including safety upgrades at Forty Bends, in the Hartley Valley and Mount Victoria village. Key features of the project include: • Improvements along the existing highway, including changes to curves to make them safer.

• New structure over Whites Creek to lessen the risk of black ice formation.

24 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

• Five main intersection upgrades: o Coxs River Road and Ambermere Drive o Baaners Lane and Browns Gap Road o Old Bathurst Road o Jenolan Caves Road and Blackmans Creek Road o Daintree Close • More arrows and reflective markers on the highway to provide clear definition of lanes.

• Provision of TL4 wire rope safety barriers.

• Improved road surface.

Chosen for its proven high performance characteristics compared to some of the dated systems on the market, design of the project included the Ezy-Guard Smart system.

Compliant to AS/NZS3845 and MASH Test Level 3, this system was chosen to mitigate many of the associated safety hazards from such a busy highway. Installations included median and verge applications to prevent run off-road vehicles from impacting rigid road side hazards, or entering non-recoverable embankments.

Flexfence TL4 wire rope safety barrier was chosen as the most appropriate WRSB for this project with approximately 10km installed. Test Level 4 is the containment of an 8000kg truck and also a 2000kg utility, this high performance barrier has an unrivalled inservice history of lives saved across Australia.

Seymour Whyte Constructions Pty Ltd was appointed by Roads and Maritime to deliver this important safety work on the Great Western Highway. Working with the designers, head contractor and installer, Ingal Civil Products, provided the type of quality products and service the industry has come to rely on from Australia’s number one supplier of road safety barriers.

For further information, please visit: www.ingalcivil.com.au

ROAD SAFETY

SA taskforce to look at impact of ice on road safety Increasing the number of roadside drug driver testings is one of the responses to be considered by a taskforce established to respond to the growing use of Methamphetamine (ice) in South Australia.

Minister for Police and Road Safety, Peter Malinauskas, said ice was becoming an increasingly significant problem on the state’s roads, with nearly five times the number of drivers/riders testing positive to the illegal substance since 2010.

Minister Malinauskas is the leader of the SA Ice Taskforce and he will be presenting legislation to Parliament that will see tougher penalties for drug drivers.

The tougher penalties will include an automatic loss of licence for first time drug driving offenders and increased penalties for drug and high level drink drivers caught with a child in the car.

Drug driving legislation and road side testing has been in place in South Australia since 2006.

Preliminary results show 28 per cent of drivers/riders killed in fatal crashes between July 2015 and June 2016 tested positive for the presence of cannabis, methamphetamine or ecstasy, or a combination of the drugs. This compares to 24 per cent in 2015 and a fiveyear average of 22 per cent.

The Motor Accident Commission’s (MAC) latest drug driving campaign aims to educate road users on the effects of illegal drugs in impairing judgement.

It also aims to create awareness around how long drugs remain in a person’s system, with ice able to be detected up to 24 hours after consumption.

“The growth of ice use is one of the most concerning issues facing our society and it is affecting community safety across the system, including on our roads,” Minister Malinauskas said.

“The government is committed to addressing this epidemic through the newly established Taskforce, with the introduction of tough new drug driver penalties to complement the work being done.

“The rates of drink driving, through the use of increased enforcement and community education, continue to decline, and the goal is to achieve this success in the reduction of drug driving.

MAC Community Engagement Manager, Matt Hanton, said drug driving and, in particular, the concerning increase in the use of methamphetamine on the roads, continued to be a priority for the Commission.

“Our research showed a common misconception about how long drugs can impair a person’s ability to drive, which is leading drivers to make the wrong choice.

“MAC’s intention is to arm road users with the facts and actively encourage them to wait until they are no longer affected before getting behind the wheel, said Mr Hanton.

“Roadside drug driving tests can detect the impairing substance in methamphetamine for at least 24 hours.

“Not only are we giving people factual information, we’re clearly telling them if they do drug drive, they will get caught.”

farmers to families and freight from Point-A to Point-B. “We are serious about making our roads safer for all road users, including heavy vehicle drivers who play such a valuable role in our national economy.

“The government is supporting a number of current programs under the Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative, including information on Chain of Responsibility, support to develop Industry Codes of Practice and Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras.

“We are also investing $254.6 million under our Heavy Vehicle Safety and Productivity Program in better roads and rest facilities for heavy vehicles throughout the nation.

“There were 208 fatalities involving heavy vehicles across Australia in 2015-16 and I want to see that number continues to decline,” said Minister Chester.

National Heavy Vehicle Regulator CEO, Sal Petroccitto, welcomed the funding and acknowledged the extensive work many heavy vehicle operators and peak bodies had already undertaken.

“We don’t pretend to have all the answers, which is why we asked heavy vehicle operators and peak industry bodies to harness their existing knowledge and apply for funding where appropriate,” Mr Petroccitto said.

“We are particularly looking at programs that can be delivered nationally to enhance safety across the heavy vehicle industry and therefore the safety of all road users.”

Maintaining focus on heavy vehicle safety The heavy vehicle industry had until 21 March to lodge submissions relating to safety initiatives/programs with the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator The Australian Government will provide $3.8 million a year to support the Heavy Vehicle Safety Initiative program benefiting freight operators and the community.

Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister, Darren Chester, said input from the industry would ensure that funding for heavy vehicle safety continued to hit the mark.

“Australia’s truck drivers help get our exports to the world, help get food from

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 25

QUEENSLAND TMR NEWS

PICTURED LEFT: Zoe Eather (2nd from right) with the Autonomous Driving Laboratory team at the Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

FUTURE CONNECTIONS STRONG AFTER SOUTH KOREA EXCHANGE What will the transport network look like in

where she met with the Autonomous Driving

the future? This is one of the questions Zoe

Laboratory team from Advanced Institutes of

Eather, Project Engineer for Queensland’s

Convergence Technology.

Department of Transport and Main Roads,

Later this year the team expects to open

carried with her on a three-month exchange

the first stage of its Cooperative Autonomous

to South Korea late last year.

Vehicle test bed in “Pangyo Zero City”, a

A joint initiative between the department

‘technology eco-system’ that will see the

and Trade and Investment Queensland, the

convergence of autonomous vehicles, IT and

exchange program was designed to reinforce

artificial intelligence.

long-term professional links between

Pangyo Zero City is planned to be a “smart

Queensland and South Korea, and encourage

city” for the future, focussing on increasing

collaboration on future technologies in

accessibility and safety for the community.

the fields of engineering and transport

AICT hopes to build information sharing

infrastructure.

relationships with interested parties all over the

So why South Korea?

“South Korea is a special mix,” says Zoe. “With high rates of urbanisation and

world.

One of the aims of the project is to prepare a transportation system for South Korea’s

technological know-how, the country offers a

aging population, which is a significant concern

unique insight into how we might tackle the

for the country. But the technology is also

transport problems of tomorrow using ‘smart’

expected to realise a 70% reduction in traffic

technology.

accidents by cutting back on driver error and

“South Korea aims to be a ‘Smart Nation’ by 2025, and is currently undertaking a

dangerous driving.

Transport and Main Roads is set to kick off a

number of projects across the country to

similar test bed initiative in the City of Ipswich

test new technologies in the transport and

(40 kilometres west of Brisbane) from 2019.

infrastructure space.”

Some of these technologies, like

Dennis Walsh, General Manager for Land Transport Safety (Transport and Main

Automated Vehicles and Cooperative ITS

Roads), says the Ipswich project will prepare

(intelligent transport systems), align with

Queensland roads for advanced vehicle

what Transport and Main Roads is already

technologies, and ultimately accelerate their

working on in Queensland, offering strong

introduction.

opportunities for collaboration.

AUTOMATED VEHICLES

“Our four-year pilot is one of the largest of its type in Australia and will see our department work with a wide range of

One of Zoe’s first stops in South Korea

industries to adapt existing traffic systems,

was Gyeonggi Province, just outside Seoul,

infrastructure and data,” says Dennis.

26 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

“Pangyo Zero City is interesting to us for a number of reasons, but in particular because they are inviting Automated Vehicle teams from around the world to participate in the project—opening the way for all kinds of compatibility issues that could be interesting to learn from.

“Zoe’s meeting with the project team has opened the way for us to learn a lot from their experience, and I believe we can offer a lot from our experience in return.”

C-ITS Zoe’s visit to the Smart Highways Project, south of Seoul, provided more useful insights for Transport and Main Roads’ research into Cooperative ITS (C-ITS).

After an initial “Smart Highways” 11km test bed pilot, the South Korean government is currently undertaking a national C-ITS Project from Sejong to Daejon which will see 88km of highway equipped with panoramic cameras, radar sensors and wireless base stations, designed to detect and transmit safety information to highway users.

The system will use WAVE, a wireless technology, to transmit information to drivers in real time, warning them of unexpected situations on the road ahead, such as accidents, bad weather or debris on the road.

The project again finds a parallel in Transport and Main Roads’ Ipswich test bed, where hundreds of motorists will take part in a Cooperative ITS project.

500 Ipswich motorists will have their vehicles retrofitted with C-ITS technology, which will detect and warn drivers about everything from pedestrians to red light runners.

What’s next for Zoe? “My three months in South Korea was such a fantastic experience, and I’m really excited about sharing what I’ve learned over there, and helping to facilitate greater collaboration between our two countries,” says Zoe. “I think the future is bright, and by sharing knowledge on a global scale we can only get there faster.”

Zoe Eather has taken up a new position on her return to Queensland in the Department of Transport and Main Roads’ Cooperative and Autonomous Vehicles Initiative team.

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DESIGNED FOR SAFETY · Low ride down accelerations on vehicle occupants in end-on impact · Reduced spare parts inventory: In almost 50% of all resets to date the only replacement parts needed are two 1/4” shear bolts · Increased crew safety: The average reset/repair time (often with just a one man crew) is 56 minutes · Reduced call out increase crew safety: to date there has been no call outs for side angle impacts, a similar pattern to that in the USA · Reduced lane closure time: Fewer call outs and faster repairs keep traffic lanes open for longer · Happier motorists: Fewer lane closures, less blockages and faster repairs · SMART DESIGN, SAFER SITES FOR ROAD CREW and SAFER MOTORING

ROAD SAFETY DESIGN AT ITS BEST The SMART CUSHION Spare parts detailed record to date for the first 47 resets. sci-01 07/15 sci-02 07/15 sci-03 09/15 sci-04 10/15 sci-05 10/15 sci-06 11/15 sci-07 11/15 1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP

sci-08 11/15 sci-09 11/15 sci-10 12/15 sci-11 04/16 sci-12 05/16 sci-13 05/16 sci-14 06/16 1st

SP+DP 1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP+DP 1st

SP+DP

sci-15 07/16 sci-16 07/16 sci-17 10/16 sci-18 10/16 sci-19 11/16 sci-20 11/16 sci-21 11/16 1st

SP+DP 1st

SP+DP 1st

SP

1st

SP+DP 1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP+DP

sci-22 11/16 sci-23 02/17 sci-24 02/17 sci-25 02/17 sci-26 02/17 sci-01 09/15 sci-02 02/17 1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP

1st

SP+Sd 1st

SP+Sd 2nd

SP+DP 2nd

SP

sci-06 11/15 sci-07 07/16 sci-08 12/15 sci-09 12/15 sci-14 07/16 sci-25 11/16 sci-01 11/15 2nd

SP+DP 2nd

SP+DP 2nd

SP

2nd

SP+DP 2nd

SP

2nd

SP+DP 3rd

SP

sci-06 11/15 sci-09 05/16 sci-01 12/15 sci-06 09/16 sci-09 12/16 3rd

SP

3rd

SP

4th

SP

4th

SP+DP 4th

SP

sci-01 12/15 sci-01 01/16 sci-01 01/16 sci-01 05/16 sci-01 06/16 sci-01 06/16 sci-01a 08/16 5th

SP+DP 6th

SP

7th

SP

Code for Unit number / date / sequence

8th

SP+Sd 9th

SP+DP 10th

SP

11th

SP

Reset/Repair required

sci-XX

unique Smart Cushion number

MM/YY

Month reset/repaired

SP+DP Delinator panel also replaced

SP

only Shear Pins were required

1st / etc

Reset sequence per unit

SP+Sd Sled panel also replaced

GAME CHANGER To date 26 Smart Cushions have been impacted, one of these has been impacted 11 times. The total cost of all Spare Parts used in 47 resets is $7,338.00 at an average of $160.00 per reset.

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ACA CORROSION FEATURE

BRIDGE MIRED IN TROUBLED WATER

By Rob Francis

“The successful engineer is the one who knows not only what has worked in the past but also what has failed and why.”

(Henry Petroski, To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure) Problems with bridges and similar infrastructure in the USA have largely concerned degradation due to old age.

However, one new bridge has been the subject of much discussion because of expensive and high profile failures during construction. A number of critical anchor rods in California's $US6.5 billion replacement San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, built to last 150 years, fractured in March 2013. As a result, the California Department of Transport (Caltrans) had to install a steel saddle retrofit to provide the required strength at a cost of $US25 million. In addition, the department has suffered bad press and spent significant sums of money on investigations and strategies to prevent further failures.

This failure provides a good case study showing some of the technical issues and problems that can arise in modern steel and concrete structures. The fact that the failure has been played out in public, with most of the documentation freely available on the internet, has made it easy to identify the problems and follow the discussion and arguments by various parties. However, it should be noted that investigations are ongoing, and it is possible that new findings will change some conclusions and recommendations.

30 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

The bridge uses shear keys between the deck and supporting pier to minimise bridge damage in the event of an earthquake. Large steel rods anchor these blocks to the pier.

In March 2013, soon after workers tensioned these rods, a number of them fractured in two. As the roadway had been installed above the shear keys and the rods had been deadended, they could not be removed. The anchor rods were 75 mm in diameter of two lengths, approximately 3 or 5.5 metres long, with both ends threaded. They were manufactured in 2008 from 4140 low alloy steel to meet the requirements of ASTM A354 Grade BD and hot dip galvanized (HDG) for corrosion protection.

They were installed in the anchor holes but left to sit due to delays in the project. They were finally tensioned five years later to 75% of the ultimate tensile strength and over the following two weeks, 32 of the 96 rods (5 of the 3 metre, 27 of the 5.5 metre) fractured. The tension on the unbroken rods was reduced to prevent further failures and none have fractured since.

A metallurgical investigation was immediately

carried out which concluded that failure was due to hydrogen embrittlement, although the source of the hydrogen was not identified.

A subsequent investigation which reported in September 2014 found the hydrogen was environmentally induced as the rods had been sitting in water that had entered the pipe sleeve assemblies enclosing the rods because of the delay before grouting and tensioning.

Corrosion of the zinc generated the hydrogen causing the embrittlement.

The following discussion looks at the rod material, galvanizing, grouting and other factors that have contributed to the failure and some suggestions to minimise the risk of such occurrences in the future.

Rod Material The high tensile steel rods were manufactured, heat treated and delivered in 2008. Specification requirements, along with the results of quality control tests and tests carried out during failure analysis on the rods are given in Table 1 which show that the

Yield strength (MPa)

Tensile strength (MPa)

Elongation in 50mm (%)

Reduction of Area (%)

Hardness at mid radius (Rockwell C)

ASTM A354 BD standard

793 minimum

965 minimum

14 minimum

40 minimum

31 – 39 range

QC Test results (Max/ min)

875 - 1089

1048 - 1193

12.5 – 16.2

40 – 50

33 - 37

Failed rods

1027, 1007, 938

1172, 1158, 1096

15.5, 14, 15

46, 48, 48.4

32.5 – 36.2

Table 1: Standard requirements, QC inspection and failure examination mechanical test results for the anchor rods.

material easily exceeded these requirements, although some samples showed elongation at or slightly below the ductility requirements.

ASTM A354 Grade BD requires hardness readings at the mid radius, whereas it is the hardness at the steel surface (or just below) which is critical for development of hydrogen embrittlement. QC reports by the heat treater showed many of the rods had a surface hardness of Rockwell C 39. Considering the relationship of this parameter to hydrogen embrittlement, this should have been investigated further.

The likelihood of failure due to hydrogen embrittlement depends on a combination of three factors: a susceptible material, a source of hydrogen and a tensile stress (applied or residual). High strength steel was essential given the loads and is a susceptible material. Caltrans disallowed pickling before galvanizing (see below) so were aware of the risk of internal hydrogen embrittlement if not embrittlement from cathodic corrosion reactions. The risk of embrittlement increases as steel strength increases. Maximum strength or hardness limits to avoid hydrogen embrittlement have been provided in numerous sources and standards, with a typical hardness quoted of Rockwell C 35, but some sources have figures as low as Rockwell C 31. There is no definite figure as the likelihood of embrittlement depends on hydrogen content as well as strength for a susceptible steel, so a steel exposed to high levels of hydrogen will have a lower strength or hardness limit than one exposed to low hydrogen levels. The maximum Rockwell C hardness of 39 given by ASTM A354 would be considered as excessive by most sources where there is a risk of hydrogen embrittlement such as for HDG product. A more conservative upper limit on the steel hardness should have been applied. This would have not caused problems as a slightly higher tempering temperature would have reduced hardness, and the risk of hydrogen embrittlement while still meeting minimum strength requirements. As a bonus, it would have made the elongation less marginal and improved impact properties although these are not directly related to hydrogen embrittlement.

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Hot Dip Galvanizing Hot dip galvanizing is problematic with high strength steels because of the known risk of hydrogen embrittlement. It is the pickling stage rather than the galvanizing that can introduce hydrogen. ASTM A354 does not forbid HDG for grade BD, but does note that “Research conducted on bolts of similar material and manufacture indicates that hydrogen-stress cracking or stress cracking corrosion may occur on hot-dip galvanized Grade BD bolts.” However, standards for similar strength fasteners such as ASTM A490, along with proprietary post-tensioning bar “Macalloy 1030”, forbid HDG whether pickled or not. Other standards or guidelines put a limit, such as HDG is only permitted for tensile strengths below 1100 MPa or below Rockwell C hardness of 33.

Caltrans were aware of the issue of hydrogen embrittlement from HDG and specifically required rods to be abrasively blasted rather than pickled. However, this only avoids the problem of hydrogen ingress

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ACA CORROSION FEATURE

during the fabrication (sometimes called internal hydrogen embrittlement or IHE).

Zinc coated items can generate hydrogen during service when exposed to corrosive environments (environmental hydrogen embrittlement or EHE) which in fact is more likely to cause embrittlement, as was the case here.

Given the potential and actual problems with galvanizing, zinc metal coating applied by any method should be avoided if possible for fasteners of such high strength in such environments. The galvanizing is designed to protect against corrosion from salt, oxygen and water which may penetrate to the bar surface although the risk is low. However, there is a very real risk of hydrogen gas and resulting embrittlement as a result of reaction of zinc with water leaching alkali from cementitious material encapsulating the bars, especially given the planned 150 years life. This risk would be much greater than the risk of loss of section from corrosion. Uncoated steel passivates in an alkaline cementitious environment with a very low corrosion rate. Moreover, there are organic and other coatings available which would not generate hydrogen in the cementitious environment.

Grouting of the Rods Problems with the anchor rods were further compounded when they were installed in the anchor holes. Water from rain and washing activities had entered the anchor holes and built up around the lower nut and thread. This water was analysed and found to have a pH of 13. Clearly, the water reacted with the cement to produce a highly alkaline solution. Such conditions lead to rapid zinc corrosion, with hydrogen gas being formed as the cathodic reaction. Once the zinc corroded to the steel substrate or at any uncoated areas, the steel would be protected but act as a cathode with hydrogen gas formation leading to embrittlement. Furthermore, investigations after rod breakages showed that the grouting was missing or incomplete in a number of the holes. The grouting is an essential part of the corrosion protection system. If moisture can build up in the grout ducts, then both general corrosion and hydrogen damage are likely. Proper quality control and inspection to ensure this crucial stage is carried out is absolutely essential.

Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Records The ability to analyse the various issues which have arisen on this project is in part due to the records, along with the compliance and traceability requirements of Caltrans.

Caltrans required their own inspection or

32 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

auditing as well as quality control and detailed documentation by the relevant contractor.

However, it appears from the problems noted above that some important inspection stages were missed and that critical problems were overlooked by both the quality control and Caltrans inspectors. This would appear to be due to lack of knowledge of the various processes that were being monitored. The best QA system is pointless if the actual QC technicians and inspectors do not understand the processes and key inspection stages.

Terminology The investigations have highlighted a problem with terminology for failures involving hydrogen. Historically, it was thought that embrittlement and failures due to hydrogen would arise during steel making and fabrication and terms such as hydrogen embrittlement and hydrogen induced cracking were reserved for such failures. Similar failures arising due to the hydrogen produced by corrosion reactions were believed to result from a different failure mechanism and considered as a form of “stress corrosion cracking”. Subsequent research has shown that the mechanism in both cases is the same, namely the presence of hydrogen embrittling high strength steel causing it to fail at a stress lower than it is designed to withstand. Now, the generally accepted term used to distinguish between the two forms (if necessary) is Internal and Environmental hydrogen embrittlement (IHE and EHE). The term stress corrosion cracking should be restricted to failure where active path metal corrosion assists in the formation of cracks, such as failure of certain stainless steels in chloride environments at above ambient temperatures. Stress corrosion cracking is rare in structural and fastener steels, even at these strength levels, at ambient temperatures.

However, the term “stress corrosion cracking” is still used for the EHE, even by experts in the field. This confusion does not assist designers who may believe they have to consider hydrogen as an issue only during fabrication.

Lessons • When using high strength fasteners under significant loads, hydrogen embrittlement is a real possibility and all steps should be taken to minimise the risk.

• An upper limit on surface hardness of around Rockwell C 35 should be specified and QC and inspection of steel mechanical properties are critical.

• If possible, zinc coating, especially hot dip galvanizing, should be avoided for such fasteners and alternative methods of corrosion control used. This is to minimise the risk of environmental hydrogen embrittlement, especially in concrete environments.

• The grouting of such fasteners is critical and all steps must be taken to ensure that such fasteners are 100 per cent encapsulated in protective grout. There will usually be a risk of hydrogen embrittlement using high strength fasteners so it is imperative that designers, contractors and inspectors are aware of all aspects of the material properties, heat treatment requirements, fabrication issues, corrosion protection and installation of such items.

Article originally published in Corrosion & Materials.

Reproduced by permission.

ABOUT THE AUSTRALASIAN CORROSION ASSOCIATION The Australasian Corrosion Association Incorporated (ACA) is a not-for-profit, membership Association which provides training, seminars, conferences, publications and other activities to disseminate information about corrosion and its prevention or control.

The industry association was formed in 1955 and represents companies, organisations and individuals involved in the fight against corrosion and promotes cooperation between academic, industrial, commercial and governmental organisations.

For further information, please visit the web site: www.corrosion.com.au

ITS SPECIAL FEATURE

Intelligent Transport Systems News and Feature Articles

ITS SPECIAL FEATURE

SUCCESS FOR iMOVE CRC

BID TEAM AS GOVERNMENT FUNDING SECURED The fledgling iMOVE CRC which secured a $55 million grant from the Australian Government to research and develop more productive and safer transport systems country-wide has up to 20 projects being readied for a quick start.

“I know our participants are eager to get started,” said iMOVE bid leader and CEO nominee, Ian Christensen. “We are planning to have a number of projects ready to start on day one; certainly that’s our aspiration.”

“Over the 10-year timeframe of the CRC it would be reasonable to expect over 100 projects to be undertaken because many of the 46 partners will be involved in more than one project.”

The $55 million research and development grant for the new Intelligent Transport Cooperative Research Centre was the largest allocation from a $151.5 million investment by the Australian Government in four new CRCs, which will deliver practical solutions to problems and produce tangible outcomes.

A Food Agility CRC was allocated $50 million over 10 years to help Australia’s food industry grow its comparative advantage through digital transformation.

A CRC for High Performance Soils received nearly $40 million over 10 years to help farmers bridge the gap between soil science and farm management.

And $7 million over five years was allocated to a CRC for Honey Bee Products – the CRC will help link floral hive sites to product quality control processes, creating a healthy product image for national and international markets. iMOVE CRC’s 46 industry, government and research partners include the Federal Department of Industry Innovation and Science, the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, state road authorities, logistics and insurance companies, technology developers, automobile clubs, retailers and many of Australia’s top universities.

The ten-year centre will undertake industry-led research that uses emerging technologies to improve Australian transport systems nationally. It will deliver fast and predictable freight systems, and enhanced mobility for Australians on the roads and public transport. “iMOVE will operate with a small secretariat – about seven or eight people – who will operate the platform on which the participants will make their contributions to develop projects; to interact with fellow stakeholders. The secretariat will almost be a virtual organisation,” Mr Christensen said.

“The research and development of projects will be undertaken at the participants’ facilities, whether the participant be a road authority or a university. The project work will happen in the field.”

Mr Christensen said the centre’s establishment was well-timed due to the challenges currently faced by Australia’s transport systems and the rapidly evolving technologies and business models that could help solve these issues.

“Transport is the backbone of our economy. As a country, we will fall behind if we cannot move our people and goods effectively and efficiently.

“Our roads are congested and our transport systems are not coordinated, and it’s getting worse in many cases.

“The establishment of the CRC gives us an immediate opportunity to tackle this situation by harnessing the power of ‘big data’, developing smarter solutions and engaging with the community to trial and deploy new technologies.”

Mr Christensen said the greatest impact the CRC would have would be helping to improve the productivity of Australia’s logistics sector and achieving more efficient people movement.

“Possibly the biggest benefit will be reducing time lost by trucks waiting to be loaded, freight sitting on docks or in warehouses, and people sitting in traffic.

“One of the main areas that will be a focus of the CRC is developing a system to improve visibility over freight data, so we can evolve a method by which participants in the freight supply chain can see, in real time, the disposition of the freight that’s heading for them.”

Ian Murray, iMOVE CRC Bid Chair, said as a country, Australia lost around $16.5 billion a year because of congestion.

“When you also factor in the human and financial losses due to accidents, we are looking at a phenomenal social and economic cost.

We will now have the technology and smarts to significantly alleviate these problems.

“The iMOVE CRC has a research program and experienced people ready to start work immediately. I am tremendously excited by the opportunities we have in front of us with this funding.”

The introduction of connected and intelligent transport systems requires national coordination mechanisms. iMOVE CRC will play a role alongside other national bodies in assisting states, territories and peak industry bodies to collaborate and deliver cohesive national outcomes.

“The current explosion of data, the computing power of mobile phones, and the increasing automation of vehicles creates a vast range of opportunities to improve the range, safety, convenience and effectiveness of peoples’ travel options,” said Mr Christensen.

Ian Christensen

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 35

ITS SPECIAL FEATURE

Mobility and transport is one of the most exciting and dynamic aspects of urban and economic development. With its broad range of partners, the iMOVE CRC will enable Australian organisations to develop world leading products and services.

“As well as with our partners, we will be working in consultation with numerous other stakeholders, such as the Australian Logistics Council and the National Transport Commission.

This will enable us to get the best possible outcomes for Australia.”

The iMOVE CRC was developed for over 18 months and Mr Christensen said the bid team received indications from government officials along the way that a CRC focusing on the introduction of connected and intelligent transport systems was a positive development.

“We were pleased to receive an unsolicited letter of support from the Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development, Mike Mrdak, early in the process in September 2015 commending us for the initiative.”

Mr Christensen said “ecstatic” was the only word that could be used to describe the reaction of bid team partners to the announcement that the iMOVE CRC had secured government funding.

“Everybody has been wanting to get started for a long time and the Government’s announcement gives us the green light. The eagerly awaited projects can begin once the CRC formation agreement is in place.

“They’re so pleased to see this initiative receive Government endorsement – my email inbox has overflowed with enthusiastic responses from all of them.

“At a personal level, I always believed establishing a CRC to advance intelligent transport technology was an important and sound initiative, and I’m very pleased the government has finally signalled officially that it agrees. It’s terrific to have the Minister’s signature on paper.”

The Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Arthur Sinodinos, said the four CRCs selected in the 18th funding round would involve interdisciplinary researchers working with industry to explore new processes, including digital technologies to deliver improvements in strategic industry sectors.

“The Cooperative Research Centres Program is a competitive, merit-based grant program that supports industry-led and outcome-focused collaborative research partnerships between industry, researchers and the community,” Senator Sinodinos said.

“Since the program’s inception, the government has invested more than $4.2 billion in innovation and research that is aimed at finding practical solutions for Australian industry, whether it is new products, processes or services.”

36 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

NEW APPLICATION OF NATIONAL TELEMATICS FRAMEWORK FOR HEAVY VEHICLE ROAD USE CHARGING Transport Certification Australia, the national government administrator of telematics and related intelligent technologies, is working with Main Roads Western Australia (MRWA) to implement a new road charging solution.

The solution represents a further application of the National Telematics Framework and, as such, utilises the investments made by governments and industry in the telematics space.

Representing a first for Australia, the new application leverages the use of certified telematics to monitor heavy vehicle road use so that road and transport agencies determine road use for charging purposes.

The application gives governments reliable data on how heavy vehicles use the transport network and its key assets.

Additionally, the information is collected, handled and presented in a manner that manages the integrity and availability of road use data, while managing privacy – essential ingredients for charging purposes.

The new application joins applications already available through the National Telematics Framework.

It is currently being used by MRWA to trial improved road access into the Kwinana Industrial Area to optimise safety, efficiency and productivity gains for the transport industry.

With the availability of 36.5 metre road train access, participating transport operators contribute to the cost of maintenance on the roads through a contribution.

“This application is the first of its kind in Australia to enable accuracy and reliability in apportioning road contribution costs, whilst improving asset management and maintenance outcomes,” TCA Chief Executive Officer, Chris Koniditsiotis, said.

“The development of the application, driven by progress in MRWA, is another example of how telematics can be used to provide infrastructure and productivity gains.”

The National Telematics Framework delivers the ability to co-locate commercial and regulatory applications in a single telematics in-vehicle unit (IVU).

As an international standard, the Framework is considered world’s best

practice approach to the sustainable use of telematics.

“In short, it means end-users don’t need to install separate, stand-alone devices to perform individual functions, significantly reducing costs,” Mr Koniditsiotis said.

“With over 30,000 Telematics IVUs already installed in heavy vehicles which are currently able to meet TCA requirements, or are able to meet them with some amendments, there is a significant proportion of the heavy vehicle task that could ‘switchon’ this application if required.

“The ability to leverage investments already made by industry means significantly lower costs to utilise this application and promote improved outcomes,” said Mr Koniditsiotis.

ITS SPECIAL FEATURE

FUNDING FOR

DRIVERLESS SHUTTLES AND CARGO PODS Transfers between Adelaide Airport’s terminal and long-term carpark are set to go driverless with the $2.8 million trial of a driverless shuttle.

It’s one of seven projects to claim a share of the State Government’s $10 million Future Mobility Lab Fund to drive local development of autonomous vehicle technology.

Autonomous cargo pods for the Tonsley Innovation Precinct and driverless shuttles for Flinders University students are also among the projects to win funding.

Adelaide Airport will receive $1 million from the fund to trial three electric driverless shuttles operating between the long-term carpark and the terminal.

If the trial is successful, the driverless passenger shuttles will be become a permanent part of its operations.

Adelaide Airport Managing Director, Mark Young, said it was keen to be an early adopter in this Intelligent Transport Systems space.

“This will be a flagship project that, following a full feasibility study, has the potential to substantially improve customer service to match the expectations of visitors and travellers to our modern gateway airport.

“A small fleet of autonomous electric vehicles would replace our current diesel powered shuttle buses, servicing our long-term and staff car parks.

“Their compact size and agility will enable them to operate on a dedicated path at an increased frequency, potentially operating 24 hours a day, reducing road congestion and significantly lowering carbon emissions.

“The project will include new bus shelters that feature solar PV, LED lighting, CCTV and wi-fi, while the buses will use a dedicated charging station partially fed by our existing onsite 1.17MW solar PV generation,” said Mr Young.

Leading international driverless car supplier, RDM Group, will receive $1 million towards a $1.8m driverless cargo pod trial, transporting goods at the Tonsley precinct, with the aim of developing a market-ready autonomous delivery pod within a year.

The UK-based company opened its AsiaPacific headquarters at the Tonsley Business Precinct in January.

RDM Group Chairman, David Keene, said when the company looked at taking its driverless vehicle technology to other countries in the world, it quickly recognised the appetite of South Australia to be at the forefront of developments in the field.

“The region shared our passion and vision and we decided that we would make Adelaide the base of our first international office, with a view to creating a bespoke assembly facility here.

“This commitment has already paid off, with lots of initial interest and new opportunities we are currently exploring.

“The funding announcement will accelerate one of these exciting ventures and we are looking forward to working with the Tonsley Innovation Precinct to deliver one of the world’s first driverless cargo pods.”

Another $1m will go to Flinders University, which will collaborate with the RAA on a threeyear $4 million driverless shuttle project.

Initially the vehicle will shuttle students around the Tonsley campus, with future plans to extend to the Bedford Park campus and local public transport hubs.

Students will collaborate on the Flinders University project with the long-term goal of developing driverless transportation as far as to the Westfield Marion shopping complex.

Flinders University Vice Chancellor

Professor, Colin Stirling, said as a leader in the area of autonomous systems, the university was the perfect testing ground for these transformational technologies.

“The trial will include the development of a mobile app that will allow people arriving by bus or train to arrange for a shuttle to meet them and deliver them quickly and conveniently to their final destination on campus.

“As the trial advances, we’ll open it up to members of the public to be able to experience driverless transport.”

South Australia’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Stephen Mullighan, said the State Government had focused on fostering the development of an autonomous technology industry in the state to claim a share of an industry predicted to be worth $90 billion globally by 2030.

“Our Australian-first driverless car trials, our Australian-first law changes to allow for on-road trials and our international Driverless Car Conference sent a message that we are the place to do business when it comes to autonomous vehicle technology.”

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 37

ITS SPECIAL FEATURE

TAPPING GLOBAL TALENT TO CUT MELBOURNE’S TRAVEL TIMES

COHDA WIRELESS WINS

SA GOVERNMENT FUNDING TO CONDUCT RESEARCH, ON-ROAD TRIALS South Australia’s global leader in autonomous technology, Cohda Wireless, will receive $2 million from the State Government’s Future Mobility Lab Fund to help finance two significant research and on-road trial projects.

Cohda Wireless supplies Vehicle-toVehicle, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure and Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (collectively called V2X) Connected Vehicle solutions, and is now developing CAV solutions for car makers, smart cities, and mining.

Cohda is planning on-road trials on the streets of Adelaide to test how vehicles communicate to one another and roadside infrastructure using the company’s state-ofthe-art systems.

It will purchase two highly automated vehicle platforms to test and expand its hardware and software for Cohda’s patented driverless vehicle communication platforms.

The project will also expand the company’s work in ‘Vehicle to Everything’ communications or V2X. These communications enhance a vehicle’s “vision” of the road network, enabling it to see around corners and detect hazards in advance.

Together the two projects are valued at $5.3m and will operate out of Cohda’s North Adelaide office.

South Australia’s Transport and Infrastructure Minister, Stephen Mullighan, said since it was founded in Adelaide in 2004, Cohda Wireless has created products now used in more than 60 per cent of connected car field trials worldwide.

“Its global reputation as a leader in connected car technology has not only helped to grow this local business, it has contributed to South Australia’s reputation as an Australian leader in adopting and fostering

38 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

driverless and autonomous technology.”

Cohda Wireless’ CTO, Paul Alexander, said the company was deploying cutting edge technology and it believed Cohda Wireless would be a major player in CAV globally.

“These grants will be used to test Cohda Wireless’ new CAV Applications on the streets and highways of Adelaide.

“Part of the grant will be used to acquire two autonomous vehicles capable of driverless operation in urban and highway environments.”

Cohda Wireless’ CEO, Paul Gray, said: “South Australia is the ideal location to develop CAV technology. Not only was South Australia the first state in Australia to pass laws allowing autonomous vehicles to be tested on the road, but The Future Mobility Lab Fund demonstrates the government’s commitment to fostering new technologies and new industries.”

The $10m Future Mobility Lab Fund was announced in November 2016 to boost local testing, research and development of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies.

The proposals were required to demonstrate, develop or contribute to the applied research of future mobility technologies that provide real benefits to communities, and the projects were required to take place in South Australia.

Other successful projects which will each receive $1m from the Future Mobility Lab Fund include: • the $2.8m Adelaide Airport electric driverless passenger shuttle trial; • the $1.8m RDM Group driverless cargo pods at Tonsley Innovation Precinct; and • the $4m Flinders University driverless student shuttles at Tonsley Innovation Precinct.

The City of Melbourne and its partners have launched a global innovation challenge to find creative ways to make travelling across the city a more enjoyable experience.

The Resilient Melbourne Citymart Challenge invites problem solvers, entrepreneurs, technology developers and creative thinkers to submit their ideas for reducing transport congestion and combatting social isolation.

Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, said the 100 Resilient Cities Network selected Melbourne as one of only four cities in the world to participate in the challenge.

"The Rockefeller Foundation has given the City of Melbourne a grant equivalent to USD$50,000 to partner with the global solutions provider Citymart and their international network of innovators to come up with the best ideas," the Lord Mayor said.

"The objective of this challenge is to find new ways to make travelling and commuting more efficient and more enjoyable in the world's most liveable city.

"The solution could be confined to the CBD or it could be metropolitan in scale; it could be an app that tells you the best time to travel to work or a new ride sharing technology; it could be a people solution or an artistic solution and it needs to use existing infrastructure."

A Challenge Panel including leaders from VicRoads, RACV, Public Transport Victoria, the City of Melbourne's Smart City Office, the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, RMIT University, Infrastructure Victoria, Foundation for Young Australians, Committee for Melbourne and the University of Melbourne will assess the entries.

The panel will select the best idea and work with the winner to explore ways to implement their solution.

The Resilient Melbourne Citymart Challenge is a key action in the Resilient Melbourne Strategy to make metropolitan Melbourne and its diverse communities more viable, sustainable, liveable and prosperous.

The Challenge will close on 23 June, 2017.

100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation (100RC) helps cities around the world prepare to meet the physical, social and economic challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century.

Melbourne was selected from 372 cities around the world to be among the first wave of 32 cities to join the 100RC network.

ITS SPECIAL FEATURE

ROAD USER CHARGING

KEY FOCUS AT MAJOR TOLLING CONFERENCE With the Australian Government considering the potential benefits and impacts of road user charging, the 2017 National electronic Tolling Committee (NeTC) Forum couldn’t be better timed.

Hosted by ITS Australia, the Forum is the premier annual tolling event in the Asia-Pacific region. It is being staged in Sydney from 23-25 May and 120 Australian and international speakers and participants are expected to attend.

In November 2016, Paul Fletcher, Federal Minister for Urban Infrastructure, announced a study into road user charging, as recommended in Infrastructure Australia’s 15 Year Plan.

Infrastructure Australia Chief Executive, Philip Davies, is a confirmed speaker at NeTC 2017 and he has previously described the current funding model to build and maintain Australian roads as unfair, inefficient and unsustainable.

“In the Australian Infrastructure Plan, we advocated for fuel excise and registration fees to be abolished in favour of a fairer

user-pays approach to road funding, where the revenue raised from road users is put back into building and maintaining transport infrastructure.

“Changing how we fund our roads will not be easy. The pathway to reform is likely to stretch over the next decade, but it must start now if we are to deliver improvements in network performance, address fairness issues and provide a sustainable source of funding for roads,” Mr Davies said.

NeTC 2017 is sponsored by Cubic Transportation Systems, Transurban, Kapsch, Q-Free and Roads and Maritime Services (RMS).

The Forum’s theme is ‘Converging Smarter Tolling Technologies’ and, in addition to road user charging, will cover other significant areas of road tolling, including: • new projects; • infrastructure maintenance; • collection and analysis of big data; • new technologies and • smart cities.

Attendees will also have the opportunity to take part in technical tours and networking events.

ITS Australia CEO, Susan Harris, said Australia was a world leader in road tolling and NeTC 2017 would be significant, not just for Australia, but for the international industry.

“This year’s forum continues the momentum generated by the recent ITS World Congress, held in Melbourne when more than 11,500 delegates from 73 countries keenly discussed road tolling. We expect this to continue at NeTC 2017.

“Australia was one of the first adopters of electronic tolling and, since then, has exported products and intellectual property to the international market.

“The global industry always pays close attention to NeTC to learn more about our initiatives, partnerships and best practice.

“However, we understand that this year, many countries are particularly interested in the current debate about user pay charging and the approaches which may be adopted in Australia,” Ms Harris said.

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 39

IAP CASE STUDY

IAP What’s In It For Me? MILLERS TRANSPORT GROUP The IAP was a catalyst for Millers Transport Group to invest in Super B-Doubles. Together, they have allowed Millers to achieve improved productivity and safety.

COMPANY HISTORY Syd Miller established Millers Transport Group over 90 years ago, with a horse and cart making local deliveries in Mordialloc. The company now specialises in container transport, with a head office in South Dandenong and a depot in Altona North.

Their fleet includes 32 prime movers and approximately 100 trailers. This configuration of equipment allows them to run six Super B-Doubles, eight B-Doubles and 18 semi-trailers.

Millers Transport Group understands that change represents an opportunity to adapt and remain competitive. Millers Transport Group saw the opportunity to improve the viability of its business by obtaining a permit through the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) to operate High Productivity Freight Vehicles (HPFVs), also known as Super B-Doubles, in Victoria.

To operate as a HPFV in Victoria, Super B-Doubles must be Performance Based Standards (PBS) approved, and enrolled in the Intelligent Access Program (IAP).

40 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

ABOUT MILLERS TRANSPORT GROUP Millers Transport Group’s Business Manager, James Vine, said that container specialisation provides a foundation for warehousing, distribution and the provision of approved quarantine and inspection services under Border Force, the Federal Government’s border protection agency.

Mr Vine knows that container transport is a very competitive sector of the trucking industry. As such, the business operates on a 24/6 basis Monday to Saturday, as well as restricted hours on Sundays.

Much of the business involves stack runs – that is, the shuttling of empty containers to and from empty container parks to stevedores’ premises at the Port of Melbourne.

‘Stack run operators like us play a vital role in the repositioning of empty containers within a port precinct, and throughout the global containerised supply chain by ensuring containers are trucked to where they are needed by exporters and importers,’ Mr. Vine said. ‘Super B-Doubles are an ideal vehicle combination for stack runs.’

‘TCA type-approved Telematics IVUs have been installed across the entire fleet of prime movers – not just the six Super B-Doubles which operate under the IAP. The use of type-approved Telematics IVUs not only enhance the capability of our back office systems –ensuring our business operates in an efficient and reliable manner – but provides us with future opportunities to colocate future commercial and regulatory telematics applications,’ Mr Vine said.

IAP CASE STUDY

ACCESS BENEFITS AND WORKING WITH GOVERNMENT Mr Vine said that Millers Transport Group approached Greater Dandenong City Council in order to seek Super B-Double access to their South Dandenong premises.

‘They were very supportive. Without that access, we could not operate Super B-Doubles to and from our premises.’

‘We have also sought additional access through other local governments. Although we’ve not always been successful, we respect the decisions made by the councils concerned.’

OPERATIONAL AND FLEET MANAGEMENT BENEFITS OF SUPER B-DOUBLES Mr Vine said the extra trailer length allows Super B-Doubles to carry four Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) containers, compared to three TEUs on a B-Double and two TEUs on a semitrailer.

‘In crude terms, this equates to a productivity gain of one third over a B-Double.’ ‘Generally, in container transport it is the cubic area, not product density, which drives the gain in productivity. This is because nearly all containers moved by the industry do not contain a mass constrained load.’

Mr Vine said there are additional economic and operational benefits. ‘As Super B-Doubles can carry any combination of up to two forty-foot containers or four twenty-foot containers, we have the flexibility of transporting any combination of twenty foot and forty foot containers on any given trip.’

Mr Vine added ‘there are plenty of operational scenarios where a customer requires four TEUs to be moved.’ ‘Compared with a B-Double, only one Super B-Double combination and only one driver can do the job, not two of each, thus greatly simplifying the transport task in terms of loading, unloading and customer interaction.’

‘Our capital equipment is designed to deal with different situations where one, two, three, four or more TEU need to be moved.’

‘This range of options gives us productivity and flexibility benefits which mean that on a per-TEU carried basis we don’t need as many prime movers and trailers in our fleet.’

‘On a per-TEU carried basis we also have lower maintenance costs, lower registration fees and less downtime, and fewer drivers.’

‘Therefore, having a fleet including Super B-Doubles gives us an edge which extends well beyond the one third productivity gain.’

Mr Vine said that ‘a smaller fleet also means overall emission levels from our fleet are less.’

‘Aside from having a fleet which includes truck and trailers which meet PBS standards, safety is enhanced simply because our fleet size is smaller,’ Mr Vine said.

THE CASE FOR THE IAP AS AN OPERATIONAL AND REGULATORY TOOL Mr Vine said the IAP was a catalyst for Millers Transport Group to invest in Super B-Doubles.

‘The IAP is a terrific initiative which is driving governments to invest in critically important infrastructure to broaden the HPFV network and to allow businesses like ours to achieve improvements in productivity and safety while reducing their environmental footprint.’

‘The per-calendar month operating costs are significantly outweighed by the operational and fleet management benefits,’ Mr Vine said.

IAP INFORMATION For further information, visit the TCA website: www.tca.gov.au

AT A GLANCE ● Millers Transport Group has 32 prime movers and around 100 trailers ● 6 Super B-Doubles operate under the IAP ● Super B-Doubles mean fewer trips and fewer operational difficulties DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this case study is intended to convey the experiences of the transport operator/s concerned. The benefits of IAP mentioned in this case study may not be true for all transport operators. Transport operators should consider the appropriateness of IAP to their business operations, objectives and circumstances before enrolling in IAP. Information in this case study has been provided by Millers Transport Group.

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 41

NEWS

AUSTSTAB CEO’S REPORT

BY GRAHAM HENNESSY

I have now been in this position for around five months and have been doing my best to get out-and-about as promised.

I have met up with members, clients and representatives from state road authorities, and it looks like a busy year ahead for the stabilisation industry with much to do.

I attended the first CPEE Pavement Recycling and Stabilisation course of the year at Grafton in northern New South Wales which was well attended

by Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), local councils and contractors.

A further six courses are scheduled for 2017 and will look to become more fully involved in this important training. Further details of course locations and registrations can be found on both the AustStab and CPEE websites.

The AustStab website is currently in the process of being upgraded and improved. This has been a long process and the revised website is planned to “go live” in April.

The new website has an improved structure and layout to make it easier to access our members and resources to assist in good stabilisation design and construction. We have also taken the opportunity to revise the content to make the site more relevant.

Submissions for the 2017 AustStab Awards of Excellence are now open via the AustStab website.

Entries will close on 8 May with five categories for the awards as follows: • Work Health and Safety; • Excellence in Research or Education; • Innovation or Excellence in Sustainability; • Recycling in Local Government; and • Young Stabiliser of the Year.

Entry for these awards is open to Australian private and public organisations. Entrants do not need to be members of the Association to be eligible, but must be accredited contractors or be in the process of achieving accreditation. For further details access the AustStab website.

42 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

The 2017 AustStab AGM will be held on the 24th, 25th and 27th of July at the Wollongong Golf Club. Winners of the AustStab Awards of Excellence will be announced at the Gala Dinner which will be held on the night of the 26th.

This is a major event for our organisation and will include presentations from Roads and Maritime Services on major infrastructure developments in New South Wales, and from the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) on stabilisation research projects it is currently undertaking on behalf of the Austroads Technology Program.

I will report on these projects in detail as they are completed. However, one of these projects of particular interest is “Improving the cost effectiveness of foamed bitumen stabilised pavements”.

This project is a three-to-four-year project and involves design and completion of a comprehensive laboratory testing to provide an improved understanding of the performance of foamed bitumen stabilised (FBS) pavements. The project has two stages: • Phase 1 has the objective of determining the deformation performance of FBS materials incorporating reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP); and • Phase 2 has the objective of determining the fatigue performance of FBS materials incorporating previously cement stabilised granular materials.

The project outcomes will allow for the revision of the Guide to Pavement Technology and national harmonisation in regard to FBS treatments for new and rehabilitated road pavements.

In conclusion, I would like to congratulate one of our AustStab members, Polyroad Stabilising, which has taken out the Road Engineering Association of Asia and Australasia (REAAA) Mino Best Project Award.

The award recognises the use of Polyroad PR21L dry powder binder on a 55-kilometre haul road project in North West Queensland, completed in 2015.

The Mino Best Project Award was established in 2016 to recognise outstanding road and/or bridge projects which have recently been constructed in the Asian and Australasian region. The Mino fund was donated by the late Mr Sadamu Mino, who was the Association’s 10th President from 1998 to 2000.

Polyroad is a TIPES approved stabilising agent and the award was presented at the REAAA Conference held recently in Bali.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FROM DAVID BERG Recently I was engaged in watching comments made in an online forum, with the discussion surrounding the use of a specific binder for use in stabilisation.

It was very interesting to see everyone’s interpretation of what this particular product was perceived to do and the user interpretation on what actually was delivered.

I was concerned that some users commented that the product worked in their soils, but were unable to elaborate with any engineering expertise on why. Others commented the product did not work in their particular road structure and offered other products that would be better without elaborating.

However, during the discussion in the forum, not one person mentioned the use of pre-construction testing to confirm what the binder was actually going to achieve with the pavement material.

In fact, in a number of cases, it was noted that the engineering department was instructed from political sources such as councillors, etc., to trial the product.

There are two main aspects to the successful design and utilisation of stabilised pavement materials. These two aspects are inter-related, as the performance of a stabilised material depends on: • Firstly, the mix design, which in turn relies on the improvement of the engineering properties of the existing pavement material by the addition of a particular binder.

• Secondly, the overall pavement design, which depends on the thickness of the stabilised layer and the normal design inputs of traffic loading, subgrade strength, etc.

The mix design of the stabilised materials requires investigation and knowledge of both the pavement

The Road to Relevant Research

material to be stabilised and the stabilising agents available. Characteristics that are important include; • Strength; • Durability; • Shrinkage Characteristics; • Moisture Susceptibility; • Erodibility; • Stiffness; • Fatigue Performance; and • Variability of source material.

Common tests carried out to assist with design are; • Plasticity Index; • Californian Bearing Ratio (CBR); • Unconfined Compression Strength (UCS); • Capillary Rise; • Lime Demand; and • Particle Size Distribution (PSD).

Once the testing is completed and traffic loadings taken into account, the final design is available. The importance of preconstruction testing is critical to the long life/durability of any road pavement.

When construction has been completed, post construction testing should be carried out with at least compaction and comparable tests against the preconstruction testing.

As stabilisation has developed into a highly utilised rehabilitation tool there have been many products enter the market claiming, and not claiming, how their particular product enhances the host material through stabilisation.

Many of these claims are both not substantiated or able to be proven by independent testing.

As this became a concern to the industry, the state road authorities set up the Transport Infrastructure Product Evaluation Scheme (TIPES) as a process aimed at providing an independent fit-for-purpose assessment of innovative road construction products.

TIPES is intended for the evaluation of products that fall outside the scope of established standards and specifications which exist for lime, cements and bitumen.

It is a national scheme endorsed by all Australian State and Territory road agencies as well as IPWEA (QLD), the Queensland Local Roads Alliance and WALGA. ARRB realises your roads are important and the need to have them safe as well as cost effective. You know there are innovative technologies that can help you do this, but which ones are the right ones?

By choosing a Transport Infrastructure Product Evaluation Scheme (TIPES) approved product, you can be more confident, knowing that what you put into your roads is rigorously tried and tested. www.arrb.com.au/ infrastructure?TIPES.aspx If you require any information in relation to the varying products, feel free to discuss your needs with the AustStab CEO who can advise the best avenue for your journey.

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Research for your global future

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 43

NEWS

POLYROAD STABILISING WINS RECOGNITION FOR QUALITY QUEENSLAND ROAD PROJECT

The project was on a gazetted indigenous reserve and had a requirement placed on it that all material for the road was to be sourced within 100 metres of the centre line.

The road was located in a remote area characterised by both wet and dry seasons, and was subject to extensive flooding during the wet season.

The existing track was in extremely poor condition, was dangerous to navigate and caused significant environmental damage from dust and constant maintenance.

SOCIAL EFFECTIVENESS AND IMPACT The project provided the following social benefits for the community: • Safe working conditions for the mine and its employees; • All weather safe access for the local community; • Ability to use the road at night which was previously unsafe, thereby providing emergency vehicles 24-hour access.

• Reduced travel times for cars and road trains, with road trains saving over an hour per journey with increased safety.

• Improved employment opportunities for the local community; and • Generally assisted in economic development of the region.

TECHNICAL EXCELLENCE

Polyroad Stabilising, an AustStab member, was awarded the prestigious MINO award for an innovative road project contested throughout Australia and Asia at the 15th REAAA Conference in Indonesia.

The conference was held from 22-24 March and the award recognised the use of Polyroad PR21L dry powder binder on a 55-kilometre haul road project in North West Queensland – the project was completed in 2015.

Polyroad, which has TIPES accreditation, submitted the project through Kieran Sharpe of ARRB who co-ordinated and assisted in providing the outline and entry requirements for this prestigious award.

Alongside Polyroad, other worthy winners were Lucas Total Contract Solutions, head contractors; Steven Runge from SMEC Sunshine Coast, head pavement designer on the project; and Glencore Xstrata as the owner of the project.

AustStab provided this Project Summary of

44 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

the Polyroad Stabilising initiative for members and for the interest of Highway Engineering Australia readers:

REMOTE AREA MINING AND COMMUNITY ROAD USING AN INNOVATIVE STABILISATION PROCESS Category II – AustStab submission for REAAA Mino Best Project Award

PROJECT SUMMARY The project requirement was to build approximately 51 kilometres of new roadway to replace a very dusty, ill formed access road. The road serviced two mine sites and local communities.

The pavement was designed for a traffic loading of 5 x 106 ESAs over a design life of over eight years.

Traffic included triple and quad road trains.

The adopted design consisted of shaping, preparing and compacting the existing track to form a subgrade.

The base course consisted of 200 millimetres of material sourced from within the road reserve, which was then stabilised with Polyroad 21L compacted and graded. The wearing course consisted of a two-coat sprayed bitumen seal.

The most significant challenge in the specification was the requirement to source all road materials from within 100 metres each side of the alignment.

The challenge facing the design engineers was to produce a suitable pavement material from this range of poor quality bush gravel and soil, and the requirement that the base course should resist regular flooding.

Extensive testing was carried out with various stabilising agents including lime, cement, bitumen and a number of proprietary products. This rigorous testing resulted in the use of Polyroad, a dry powdered polymer which has been used extensively on highways in New South Wales and has TIPES* approval.

Specific items of excellence were: • Engineering solution to use local materials; • Extensive geotechnical testing to determine

suitability; • Use of an innovative stabilising binder to reduce moisture ingress into the pavement, even during flooding and providing increased pavement strength • Tightly written specification and carefully controlled construction process by a highly experienced stabilisation contractor.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

The construction of a sealed road using stabilisation techniques provided the best possible environmental outcome. The major points of this outcome were: • Elimination of dust from the previous track and conservation of scarce water which was used for dust control; • Elimination of environmental damage from flooding and constant maintenance works; • Ability to use existing materials, thereby conserving valuable quarry materials; • Elimination of the detrimental effects of trucking quarry materials to site; • Stabilisation processes have the minimum greenhouse gas emissions compared to any other form of road construction.

* ABOUT TIPES

The aim of the Transport Infrastructure Product Evaluation Scheme (TIPES) is the establishment of a national process for all road agencies to follow when adopting new technology, thus creating a pool of approved products for all agencies to use.

In doing this, we can have a safe and reliable point of reference as well as a standardisation of processes administered by one independent body.

TIPES is a national scheme that has been endorsed by all Australian state and territory road authorities.

Local government has also recognised the scheme

and it has gained support from the Queensland Local Roads Alliance, Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) and IPWEA QLD and Victoria.

ARRB is also in discussion with other local government associations to adopt the scheme.

As part of an initiative to create more harmonisation within the Australian road industry, ARRB has been endorsed to administer TIPES – a process aimed at providing an independent fit-for-purpose assessment of innovative road construction products – into the Australian road sector.

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 45

AAPA NEWS

‘BUILD IT TO LAST’ CAMPAIGN URGES ROAD RESILIENCE Cyclone Debbie provided a grim reminder of the human cost of natural disasters in Australia, with lives and property lost.

The economic cost was immense too, with floodwaters from the cyclone causing billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure, including roads.

It is in this context that the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association (AAPA) has initiated a campaign to improve the resilience of the Queensland road network.

The ‘Build it to Last’ campaign aims to: • Improve knowledge and management of risks to enable roads to be built more wisely to maintain vital connections, especially to remote and rural communities, and protect the economy • Identify priority resilience road projects • Attract increased government funding of at least $200 million a year to protect flood-prone roads • Introduce more resilient road products • Ensure more stringent engineering standards • Provide information to asset owners on the benefits of more resilient roads.

“We want to toughen up our road infrastructure to counter extreme events

46 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

such as cyclones,” said AAPA Chief Executive Carlos Rial.

“Our message to state and local governments is that it’s smarter to build tougher roads in the first place rather than relying on an ever-diminishing pool of maintenance funds for repairs after flooding.”

Mr Rial said the campaign aimed to establish the equivalent of the accident black spot fund to enable asset owners to improve roads most vulnerable to flooding.

Previous studies had indicated that these were likely to be low-lying, flood prone pavements, raised pavements/ridges (watershed) or above flood levels/improved watershed.

Mr Rial said the studies found that flooding caused a large proportion of pavement failures and blocked or inadequate table drains.

“Low cost treatments in the past have not performed well, and many sections are still waiting to fail,” he said.

On the back of repeated cyclones and associated flood damage, minimum standards and low maintenance funding have led to vital road connections being cut, especially to rural and remote communities.

These breaks in movement of people, goods, export commodities and tourists, along with large repair bills, have massive negative impacts on the economy.

Some relief for infrastructure costs is available from the Commonwealth but in the past, the standard of repairs has not enabled the infrastructure to better handle the next extreme event.

Findings from studies of flood recovery and road reinstatement have identified better products and standards to avoid the same damage from extreme events in the future.

AAPA has received widespread support from asset managers and engineering advisors to establish guides on priority selection bases linked to costs, risk and better performing products.

More durable surfacing treatments such as polymer-modified spray seals, including crumb rubber-modified seals, provided increased toughness and waterproofing to protect the underlying road base. For extreme flood risk, fabric-reinforced seals are proven in Victoria.

The biggest risk to the road network is poor maintenance – allowing the bituminous surfacing to excessively age and crack or inadequate or poorly maintained drainage works.

Despite AAPA’s 2015-16 Fix it First campaign, aimed at an increasing awareness of the importance of maintaining roads, a backlog in maintenance remains. There are opportunities to enhance the resilience of those parts of the network with high strategic and commercial value.

AAPA NEWS

In the bituminous product industry, these include bituminous-stabilised road bases, tougher road surfacing using modified binders and deep asphalt pavements (full depth – perpetual).

Product selection to resist environmental damage and provide quick reinstatement of service is an obvious solution for pavement inundation. In rural areas, this is achieved economically through bituminous stabilisation of the granular material.

Termed bituminous stabilised road base, it provides a waterproofed- bound base which retains its strength and enables early trafficking after floods.

In urban areas, a good example is the use of full depth asphalt pavements. Solidly bound with bitumen and immensely resilient, these bases have been used in Brisbane without loss of design life and are able to be trafficked as soon as the floodwater has receded. This was not the case with previous unbound granular pavements, which showed a drop in the service standard and design life, including a longer period for untrafficked dewatering.

From a presentation by Tyrone Toole, Chief Advisor, Asset Management, Australian Roads Research Board (ARRB)

The ‘Build it to Last’ Campaign forms part of the 17th AAPA International Flexible Pavements Conference Program which will be held in Melbourne on the 13-16th August.

The aim of the conference is to prepare the Australian Flexible Pavements sector for future challenges by openly discussing the possible disruption that will come through physical environments and new digital technologies.

By providing a platform for the Flexible Pavement Industry and its stakeholders, suppliers and partners to share, consider and plan for the impacts and changes, we can further explore the issues this campaign aims to address.

For more information and to join the discussion, register your place at the conference by visiting: conference.aapa.asn.au

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 47

ASPHALT IN FOCUS

ASTEC INC. INTELLI-PAC

™

Mix Blending Enhancement System The ASTEC Intelli-Pac™ mix blending enhancement system gathers real-time moisture and AC content information and makes adjustments on-the-fly to maximize plant efficiency.

This data is used to determine how much liquid AC is necessary for the mix. Moisture data combined with belt scale measurements enable the plant computer to calculate the necessary fuel burn rate to dry the material and bring it to the desired mix temperature.

When producing hot mix asphalt (HMA) it is critical that the parameters of the material entering the process are known. The difficulty in doing this is that the conditions of the material, such as moisture content, are ever changing. The Astec Intelli-PAC system addresses these fluctuations by generating realtime data so that the plant control may respond to fluctuating conditions as they occur.

BETTER FUEL EFFICIENCY, LESS WASTE

INTELLI-PAC™ MIX BLENDING ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM The Intelli-PAC system uses a series of sensors to measure real-time material conditions rather than relying on lab measurements from earlier in the day. By having real-time data fed into the control system, the computer can respond to fluctuations in conditions immediately. This means that the plant runs more efficiently, saving liquid AC, fuel, aggregate, and labour.

Material moisture data is used to calculate the heat requirements and anticipates required burner fuel flow adjustments so that virgin aggregate reaches the target temperature necessary to achieve desired mix temperature. Proactive adjustment enables very responsive automatic burner

INTELLI-PAC ™

MIX BLENDING ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM

operation and excellent mix temperature control even during start-ups. This ability can greatly reduce or even eliminate start up and shutdown waste.

OPTIMAL LIQUID METERING By knowing the real-time moisture content in both the virgin aggregate and recycle as well as the binder content in the recycle2, the possibility of making out-of-specification mix caused by binder content being either high or low is minimized.

Additionally, precision is increased to a level that allows the operator to choose operational targets within the specification binder content of the mix.

BETTER FUEL EFFICIENCY, LESS WASTE

OPTIMAL LIQUID METERING

REAL TIME MEASUREMENTS Virgin Aggregate Water Content: The cold feed bin sensors capture and report real-time water content to the control system. This dictates how much fuel is required to dry the aggregate and bring it to temperature, as well as the AC required for mix specifications.

AP Water Content and AC Content: Sensors capture both water content of the recycle material as well as how much binder it contains.

48 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

REAL TIME MEASUREMENTS

BETTER CONTROL INCREASES PROFIT

ASPHALT IN FOCUS

BETTER CONTROL INCREASES PROFIT

OPTIONAL V-PAC STACK TEMPERATURE CONTROL SYSTEM

With optimized control of system inputs and requirements, mix-specific requirements can be obtained more quickly, reducing the “out of spec” start-up waste. It also allows for less wasteful, on-the-fly mixing changes.

This saves money and keeps margins high, especially for contractors who use multiple mix designs.

The Intelli-PAC works hand-in-hand with the patented3 ASTEC V-PAC Stack Temperature Control System. The V-PAC combines Astec’s V-flights and a drum VFD (variable frequency drive) to enable optimization of stack temperature for a broad range of mix types without costly flighting changes.

V-flights are uniquely designed to maximize heat transfer by exposing more material to the heat produced by the burner.

REFERENCES

WITH V-PAC

P L A N T

.

1. U.S. Patent No. 9,353,489 2. Real time data of the AC content of RAP will be available late 2017.

3. U.S. Patent No. 8,863,404 B1 While the V-PAC can be purchased independently of the Intelli-PAC system,

WITHOUT V-PAC

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ABOUT ASTEC AUSTRALIA Quality equipment backed by reliable service Astec Australia represents a number of Astec Industries Companies. We specialise in the design, engineering, manufacture and maintenance of a range of asphalt, aggregate and mining equipment used to build and restore the world’s infrastructure. Our organisation sells and services asphalt plants as well as mobile screening, crushing, earth and road construction equipment. For more information visit us at www.astecaustralia.com.au

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the two can work together to improve plant efficiency. In fact, the parameters from the Intelli-PAC system enhance the V-PAC system to help drive the stack temperature even lower than the V-PAC system alone.

For more information please contact Steve Mole at Astec Australia Pty Ltd on 1300 278 322

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EQUIPMENT TO BUILD AND RESTORE THE WORLD’S INFRASTRUCTURE ASTEC AUSTRALIA.

an Astec Industries Company

PO BOX 142, ACACIA RIDGE, QLD, 4110 • 1300 278 322 (1300 ASTEC AUS) • astecaustralia.com.au

A crude gas channel coated with Amdurit.

ASPHALT IN FOCUS

Particularly resistant wear parts increase plant availability and cut operating costs. Photo source: Fotopizza.com

AMMANN EXTENDS PLANT LIFE WITH AMDURIT® Amdurit, Ammann’s proprietary wearprotection system, provides up to three times the service life of wear-resistant steel and protects valuable parts and components at asphalt and concrete plants. Instead of replacing the component, simply swap out the Amdurit covering.

The wear-protection system results in savings on multiple fronts. Components last longer, which translates to fewer replacements and therefore lower costs. In addition, plant owners also avoid the labour costs associated with replacement of the components. Overall plant uptime is improved as well.

There are many potential areas of use, including drum inserts; transition and discharge locations; feeders (both RAP and traditional); and silos.

THE HISTORY The beginnings of Amdurit® go back to the year 2009, when the increased use of recycled material took its toll on plant components.

Even the service life of wear-proof steel was premature. Something even harder with longer service life was needed – and found in the form of Amdurit. It was an extension of existing protection developed through testing and changing the material compositions to create a higher degree of hardness.

At the heart of Amdurit is a deposition welding system. A steel plate is mounted and welded. The application of heat bends the plate, which is subsequently passed through a roller to straighten it again. Its surface is smoothed

50 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

to prevent caking when in use. The plate is then cut to size by a plasma cutting machine. The result: a standard Amdurit plate.

OPTIMISED PARTS The possible uses of Amdurit components in concrete- and asphalt-mixing plants or gravel plants are virtually limitless. There are, however, preferential applications.

The pre-feed bins on asphalt-mixing plants, for instance, can be clad comprehensively or only in part. Drum feed and discharge areas are ideal for reinforcing.

Amdurit is also ideal for reinforcing the back wall and side elements of hot elevators, as well as the feed and discharge sections and the transition area to the screen.

The screen's switch flap is especially susceptible to wear, as are the baffle plate, bypass flap and discharge flap. The connecting elements and partition walls of hot aggregate silos are also predestined for cladding with replaceable wear plates.

The mixed mineral storage silo and transfer skip also have particularly susceptible components. The pre-filters in dust extraction systems count among the candidates as well.

Baffle plates can be made entirely of Amdurit and the welded construction is reinforced with additional struts. The bypass flap is also made entirely of Amdurit whereby additional armoring is applied by hand to the face edges.

The preferred areas of use with regard to components for reclaimed asphalt (RAP) feed are:

• RAP elevator feed and discharge • Drum pipe infeed, cone and scales in the drum pipe • Intermediate container and chute in the mixer • RAP feed, worm screw and screw trough A range of fastening methods, such as welding, clamping and bolting, make it easy to replace the original part with Amdurit wear protection.

Attaching threaded bolts to the rear of the plate has the advantage of a smooth face side with no sites for wear to attack.

OPTIMISED DESIGN Counteracting wear and tear effectively requires experience. Two of Ammann's design specialists have focused exclusively on the subject for years. They developed various systems that enable the plant operator to fit the components with speed and precision.

The parts for the drum discharge, for instance, are precision-made according to illustrated specifications. They are easy to attach, thanks to threaded bolts, and therefore just as easy to replace when necessary. Wear parts are numbered for accurate assembly and are provided with an installation drawing. A complete system, instead of a kit, is available for hot elevators.

The protection system can be part of a new plant or easily retrofitted.

For further information, please visit: www.ammann-group.com.au

A complete production line at the company's headquarters in Switzerland ensures simplified production in top quality.

AmduritÂŽ wear protection

ur o y e reduc osts! o t How rating c ope Preferred areas of use: dryer drum outlet (main picture), reclaimed asphalt hopper discharge, crude gas channel, buffer silo, mineral scale, hot mix storage silo (pictures below)

It is worthwhile applying Amdurit to the plant components that are subject to the most wear and tear.

Amdurit is wear protection made by Ammann with a much longer lifetime in comparison to wear-proof steel. Our experience shows that Amdurit significantly lowers operating costs. A longer lifetime also reduces the amount of costly assembly and dismantling work. Its possible applications are virtually limitless thanks to different material thicknesses, material qualities and the option to produce original parts for your asphalt or concrete mixing plants or your gravel plant. A range of fastening methods such as welding, clamping and bolting make it easy to replace the original part with Amdurit wear protection.

For more information on amdurit and asphalt mixing plants, compactors and pavers see www.ammann - group.com.au

Ammann Australia 5 / 29 Business Drive, Narangba, 4504 Queensland Phone: +61 7 3293 1111 Fax: +61 7 3293 2222 info.aau@ammann-group.com

ASPHALT IN FOCUS

The Marini MAP 260 asphalt plant of Adige Bitumi Group in Friola (Vicenza), Italy.

WHEN INNOVATION COMBINES WITH IMPROVEMENT Innovation is the first sign of a company's vitality and its desire to satisfy the client's demands by proposing technological solutions which respect both the environment and the health and safety of the operators.

In well-developed markets, the most innovative companies are the ones which are able to recognize new opportunities, and discern the incipient needs or simply identify the needs which are not adequately satisfied by other companies.

There is no doubt that the asphalt business constitutes one of the most mature markets. However, thanks to continuing technical innovations made by road building companies, often with the backing of major Universities, road machinery manufacturers and chemical industries, interesting work opportunities have ensued, linked with innovative asphalt production.

Mixes with high RAP content are increasingly frequent, together with low temperature mixes, foam bitumen, modified bitumen, fibres and much more.

To meet these new demands, Marini has developed new subsystems which can be fitted onto existing plants, meaning that even older models can be remarkably rejuvenated.

One of the most significant examples of Marini's successful intervention is the MAP 260 plant belonging to the Adige Bitumen Group in Friola, in Italy's Vicenza provence.

Installed in 1997 on the site of Friola di Pozzoleone, it has been progressively modified and modernized to face new work challenges.

In 2004 the screen surface was increased from 783m2 to 1096m2 to upgrade the

52 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

filtering process with consequent increase in fines recovery and improved temperature control at filter entrance.

In 2007 the cold feeders increased from 7 to 10 to satisfy the increasing requirements of the authorities and customers alike and to ensure maximum work flexibility using new asphalt mixes developed over the years.

With the constant development of new technologies, the Adige Bitumen Group found it had to install a special production unit to manage the RAP arriving from various road sites.

So alongside the Friola production site, a plant at Sarcedo, Vicenza, was created to treat the RAP arriving from various road sites. The RAP is deposited on an ecological asphalt platform before being treated in the adjacent 2010 plant.

Thanks to its totally waterproof surface, the meteoric water is collected and fed into a plant with the following phases: collection, de-sanding, de-greasing and discharge.

The various selected piles of RAP are covered for protection and to limit moisture content, improve the quality of the material and ensure consistent energy savings during the work cycle.

The Sarcedo plant not only recovers waste but is designed to operate with aggregates (recycled and non recycled) and cement mixes, and possesses an active quarry licence which runs until 2023. Like the Sarcedo site, the Friola plant has an ecological platform for storing RAP in covered piles.

To recover and reuse the RAP, in addition to the classical hot recycling line supplied in

1997, a line for cold RAP feed was installed at the beginning of 2016.

The RAP is opportunely treated and selected, then weighed and fed directly into the mixer. Through contact with the virgin aggregates, which are heated up to a high temperature, the heat exchange is sufficient to dry out the RAP. This equal temperature distribution throughout the various materials guarantees, once the bitumen has been added, the production of high quality, workable asphalts ready to be laid.

Additionally, in 2016 the latest version of Cybertronic 500 software was installed for improved, easier management and more accurate formula selection. This new software means that the Marini MAP 260 plant is more precise than models produced in the same period and can be equalled to the latest generation plants.

Nowadays additives in the bitumen have an increasingly important role to play in the latest generation asphalt mixes. Thanks to the new Cybertronic 500 software, the metering is performed through a gravimetric system directly into the bitumen supply. This innovation ensures an accurate additive feed into the formula in use.

For greater flexibility, two separate metering lines have been installed.

In conclusion, as a result of these operations, the Adige Bitumen Group has once again proved to be able to guarantee a constantly high-quality product and greater flexibility in production, with increased customer satisfaction. At the same time, there is reduced consumption of un-renewable raw materials and all in a more Eco-friendly way!

17th Aapa international Flexible pavements Conference AND Exhibition 2017

register

now constructing the roads of the future perpetual and heavy duty pavement technology next generation bituminous surfacings flexible pavement technology for (air)ports resilient regional and local government roads managing road networks in a digitally connected world delivering the smart, safe and sustainable roads of the future

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

13-16 august

gala dinner and national industry awards 2017 ngv great hall tuesday 15 august

trade exhibition and family day bbq lunch mcec exhibition hall sunday 13 August

$1650 / $1,875 – member / non member early bird** $1950 / $2,175 – member / non member full registration $640 – student registration local government offer free aapa membership for 2017/18 when you buy 2 or more full registration tickets Group booking offers Book 4 – 9 full registration tickets and receive a 5% discount Book 10 or more full registration tickets and receive a 10% discount All prices exclude gst * early bird discount valid on bookings made before 30th april 2017

to register visit conference. aapa. asn. au or call 03 8416 4500

ASPHALT IN FOCUS

WIRTGEN GROUP TECHNOLOGIES

PUMP UP THE SPEED ON MAJOR HIGHWAY REHABILITATION PROJECT

During rehabilitation of Germany's A1, Wirtgen Group machines worked hand in hand, paving thin layers and carrying out fine milling work. The new high-quality surface course was paved economically in just 42 nights, as opposed to the scheduled 55.

Around 15 years ago, Straßen.NRW had the first section of federal highway paved with noise-reducing open-pore asphalt on the A1 between the Westhofen interchange and the Dortmund/Unna junction in the Ruhr region – by far the most densely populated area in Germany. By 2016, the surface course was worn and the three-lane highway including the hard shoulder needed rehabilitation. On the right-hand lane and the hard shoulder, the binder course also needed replacing.

Project planners wanted to prevent full closure, as this 7.2-km highway section is one of the main arteries of the German federal highway system and is used daily by an average of 100,000 vehicles in each direction, with heavy goods vehicles accounting for around 17% of this total. In the end, the starring roles in the project fell to Wirtgen milling machines and Vögele pavers, which took to the road each night and rehabilitated the asphalt pavement section by section and lane by lane. Some of the mix was supplied by a Benninghoven mixing plant. They all did an excellent job – so excellent, in fact, that the project was completed after just 42 nights.

INNOVATIVE REHABILITATION CONCEPT

1,300m in each shift: To prevent full road closure, Wirtgen and Vögele machines worked night shifts to rehabilitate the busy A1 federal highway “overnight”.

54 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

To minimize traffic obstructions during rehabilitation, Straßen.NRW developed an innovative concept: Every night a 700 to 900m section of each of the 3.75m-wide lanes was rehabilitated when the traffic frequency was at its lowest in the hours between 8pm and 5am. Heike Gerlach, Head of Road Construction at the highway subsidiary of Straßen.NRW in Hamm, summarized the project as follows: “If you don’t notice during the day that there was a construction site here at night, then we have done our job properly.”

For the left and centre lanes, this meant blocking the respective section, removing the surface course with fine milling drums, cleaning the milled surface, placing a SAMI layer (Stress Absorbing Membrane Interlayer), paving a new surface course, applying the road markings and cooling. There was slightly more to do on the right-hand lane, where cold milling machines removed the surface and binder courses in two passes. The

ASPHALT IN FOCUS

binder course material was then paved to a thickness of 12cm. In another night shift, the right-hand lane and the hard shoulder of the highway were milled to a depth of 4cm and replaced with a new OPA surface course of the same thickness. Next came the final step: creating 2cm-deep joints at the seams. These ensure that the individual paved lanes are permanently bonded without impairing the drainage of water in the open-pore asphalt.

HAND IN HAND FOR HIGH QUALITY: FINE MILLING AND THIN OVERLAY PAVING GEHRKEN Straßen- und Tiefbau GmbH & Co. KG from Dortmund carried out the work as the general contractor and project coordinator. The company used Wirtgen Group machines for the key jobs.

For example, the milling contractor GMS Fahrbahnsanierungen GmbH exclusively worked with Wirtgen cold milling machines – two large milling machines of type W 210i and the new compact milling machines W 100 CFi and W 150 CFi. After cleaning the milled surface, a Vögele SUPER 1800-3i SprayJet spray paver carried out two jobs at the same time: With the integrated spray module, it placed the new SAMI layer and immediately overlayed the new surface course "hot on hot" (thin overlay). Some of the asphalt for the job site was supplied by a Benninghoven BA 3000 mixing plant belonging to KEMNA BAU Andreae GmbH & Co. KG in nearby Kamen-Heeren.

The customer was extremely pleased with the machine performance across the board.

Engineer Udo Mattigkeit, Project Manager at Straßen.NRW, reported; “In the end, the

Reliable and fast: The Wirtgen large milling machine W 210i. With its precise milling operations and Multiplex levelling system, the milling machine ensures extremely level roadway surfaces – and ideal conditions for paving thin overlay.

machines proved even more efficient than previous calculations had led us to expect.

This prompted our decision to extend the length of the sections after the first few nights, enabling us to rehabilitate up to 1,300 metres per night. We ultimately finished the job 13 nights ahead of our original schedule.

And the quality of the new surface course is absolutely superb.”

FINE MILLING: WIRTGEN LARGE AND COMPACT MILLING MACHINES CREATE BASIS FOR THIN OVERLAY One of the machines used was the W 150 CFi, the most powerful cold milling machine in the Wirtgen Compact Class. With its low transport weight, it can be conveyed on most roads without a special transport permit – a great advantage when it comes to providing flexible and fast milling services.

With a capacity of 283 kW and a milling width of 1.50 m, this front loader is ideal for larger job sites with limited space. In such conditions, the sophisticated vision concept combined with the camera systems help the machine operator to manoeuvre the milling machine. The many cameras around the milling machines were particularly helpful to the operators when working on the A1 at night. “I can see exactly where the milled material lands in the truck. I can also recognize what is happening immediately in front of and behind the milling drum,” explains Milling Machine Operator Jens General. The brilliant illumination of the entire working area of the milling machines by bright LED lamps is a further boon. The excellent visibility not only enhances safety, but also helps the operators achieve the

required precision. A large front axle steering angle also ensures very small turning circles and the large conveyor slewing angles of 60° to the right and left make it possible to load material under difficult job-site conditions.

This model also features ISC (Intelligent Speed Control) to optimally deliver the power of the W 150 CFi to the road. Just like a traction control system on a car, the ISC prevents crawler track slip and guarantees maximum traction of all crawler units for the highest possible milling output.

Also on the job: two Wirtgen large milling machines of the type W 210i. With their excellent performance and precise milling and levelling processes, they are ideal for the economical execution of a wide range of milling jobs – such as fine milling on the A1.

Fine milling drums were specified for milling the 4 cm-thick surface course. GMS therefore opted to use type LA6 fine milling drums with two cutters per cutter row for this project. In contrast to a standard milling drum, it has 672 cutters instead of the customary 168. The 6-mm tool spacing creates a very finely structured roadway surface with a low peak-to-valley depth that ensures optimum interlocking of the milled surface with the newly paved layer. GMS also elected to use the Multiplex levelling system, which is particularly suitable for smoothing irregularities in a lengthwise direction during fine milling jobs. The system comprises several sensors which are mounted on either one or both machine sides (e. g. cable, ultrasonic and cylinder sensors) that measure the actual level of the roadway. The automated levelling system then calculates the average value from the results. The control system then automatically adjusts the milling depth on the basis of this value.

This compensates longitudinal undulations highly effectively, delivering maximum surface evenness.

The milled surface was meticulously cleaned after milling with a suction and sweeping machine so that the Vögele SUPER 1800-3i SprayJet paver was able to spring into action a short time later. The spray paver was designed specifically for paving thin overlay on spray seal, "hot on hot" and for conventional paving with pre-spraying. It can, however, also pave surface and binder courses without activating the spraying module. In the space of two to three hours, the GEHRKEN team paved around 5,000m2 per night with an advance rate of 7 - 8m/min.

This left enough time for the pavement to cool and the markings to be applied, so that the newly completed section was punctually reopened again for traffic every day at 5a.m.

April/May 2017 | Highway Engineering Australia 55

ASPHALT IN FOCUS

PAVING THIN OVERLAY: VÖGELE SPRAYJET TECHNOLOGY BEST CHOICE FOR OPA SURFACE COURSE A spray paver is particularly essential when paving OPA, as a SAMI layer (Stress Absorbing Membrane Interlayer) is required underneath the open-pored asphalt to prevent the base becoming wet. This layer channels the surface water out of the OPA surface course and routes it to the edges. The preferred materials are impermeable emulsions made of polymer-modified or rubber-modified bitumen. These layers only do their job when they are undamaged. For this reason, trucks are not permitted to drive over the sprayed-on film. Vögele SprayJet technology solves this problem by paving asphalt directly over the freshly applied bitumen film.

To apply the bitumen emulsion evenly over the surface, the SprayJet paver is equipped with five spray bars. Three of the bars are fixed in place. They are located directly behind the push-roller between the two crawlers or behind the undercarriage on the right and left. A movable spray bar with seven nozzles is additionally mounted on each side.

It ensures seamless emulsion application,

56 Highway Engineering Australia | April/May 2017

even with varying pave widths. The rate of spread can be selected accurately within the range of 0.3 and 1.6 kg/m2 – on the A1 it was 0.5 kg/ m2. The colour display supplies all vital information to the paver operator. The desired rate of spread can be entered very easily. The SprayJet nozzles operate in pulsed mode and the frequency of the spray pulses is adjusted automatically as a function of the selected rate of spread, pave speed and pave width. This guarantees a regular film that covers the entire surface.

The entire spraying equipment is designed as a completely self-contained functional unit. As a result, the new SUPER 1800-3i SprayJet can be used both as a spray paver and as a standard paver.

Its maximum spray width is 6.00m. As a standard paver without spray function, it can even pave widths of up to 9.00m.

The pre-sprayed bitumen emulsion must “break” for it to fulfil its intended function.

This means that the water it contains must escape. This process is aided by the use of special, fast-breaking, cationic, polymermodified emulsions. It is sprayed from the SprayJet tank at a temperature of 70 to 80°C. When it makes contact with the mix, which

is much hotter than 100°C, most of the water evaporates – the emulsion "breaks". Any water still remaining in the bitumen emulsion can evaporate later through the pores in the asphalt layer.

In addition to the SprayJet technology, the SUPER 1800-3i SprayJet has everything that hallmarks a Vögele paver. For example, the sprung push-rollers reliably absorb all jolts from the feed vehicles, ensuring a highquality, even asphalt surface.

After just a few nights on the job, Paver Operator Dietmar Langer already perfectly mastered the machine that GEHRKEN had purchased expressly for this project.

This is partly due to his experience as a road constructor, but also a result of the extensively self-explanatory, well-conceived operating logic. “Except for two buttons, operation is the same as on a normal Vögele paver – this is really great,” he enthuses.

Langer was also very satisfied with machine induction by the service technician from Wirtgen Windhagen, the Wirtgen Group subsidiary responsible. He also “supported the team for several nights so that we could work through all typical operations – that was super,” the paver operator explains.

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