Roads & Infrastructure February 2019

FEBRUARY 2019

& INFRASTRUCTURE

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RECYCLED ROADS C&D waste in roads on the rise in WA

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FEBRUARY 2019 CONTENTS

& INFRASTRUCTURE UP FRONT

14 Thriving against the test of time

In the 35 years since its inception, Stabilised Pavements of Australia has thrived by driving innovation in materials, machines and engineering solutions for its customers.

Read about Cat’s new mini excavator range on page 50.

50 Mini but mighty

C at’s next-generation range of mini hydraulic excavators is tailored to provide operators with optimal performance, versatility and safety on any construction site.

18 Engineering better infrastructure

With leaner resources and fewer engineers in government roles, how can the public sector make the most of its engineering staff?

52 Pump power

The combination of FG Wilson generators and Sulzer submersible pumps is giving contractors a reliable solution for extracting and keeping water out of construction sites.

22 By practitioners, for practitioners

How ARRB’s new generation of workshops is providing the road and transport sector with tailored, interactive and practical sessions.

26 Laying the groundwork for the digital construction site

Bentley Systems’ Dustin Parkman talks about new digital workflows for construction site design and delivery and where the software provider’s latest civil product fits in.

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

40 Recycled roads on the rise

Main Roads Western Australia is increasing its use of recycled construction and demolition waste in roads through a new pilot project and product testing scheme.

54 Raising the safety standard

To ensure it purchases safe construction equipment for its crews, Alex Fraser puts prospective machines through their paces. Its new Dynapac roller hits the mark.

30 Towards a digital future

R oads & infrastructure Magazine finds out what the Queensland Government’s new BIM implementation policy means for the local sector.

BUSINESS INSIGHT

56 A safe way to reverse

T he addition of the WABCO TailGuard electronic braking system to its Dynamix Concrete Mixers is helping Gough improve safety for Australia’s construction sector.

ASPHALT NEWS

AUSTSTAB SECTION

58 How effective are your fire suppressant systems?

There is a perception that once a crane fire gets started, nothing can be done to stop it. Firestorm’s Kieran McHatton explains this isn’t the case.

36 Safe sampling of hot bitumen from road tankers

An overview of the recommended safety procedures that need to occur when sampling hot bitumen from road tankers.

38 Fixing the future

Through trials of its crumb rubber binder across Australia, Road Maintenance aims to improve the uptake of the sustainable approach now and well into the future.

42 Contracts – in brief

An update on some of the major project contracts awarded and out to the market over the past month across the Australian infrastructure sector.

44 President’s message / CEO’s message 45 Report: Black soil stabilisation trials, Narrabri, November 2018

A n overview of the black soil stabilisation trials that took place in coordination with Narrabri Shire Council and IPWEA (NSW) on River Road last year.

NATIONAL PRECAST

46 The latest news from National Precast Concrete Association Australia.

SAFETY

60 Rapid response for safety rentals

Road Safety Rentals, a division of Saferoads, is helping Victorian contractors avoid costly delays by providing rapid deployments of safety equipment.

REGULARS

4 Editor’s note 6 News 62 Events diary

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& INFRASTRUCTURE

NEW YEAR, NEW HORIZONS WITH THE PASSING OF ANOTHER YEAR, more often than not, a collective sigh of relief can be heard around the globe. Many of us see the transition from one year to the next as a fresh start, a new year and new opportunity to reinvent ourself.

While the idea of a clean slate is tempting, reflecting on the past 12 months, readjusting and resetting your goals for the next 12 is a more constructive way to approach the next year and meet any challenges head-on.

Taking the experiences of the past and using them constructively for a more productive outcome in the future is what makes Australia’s road and transport infrastructure industry great. Every day we see instances of businesses heeding lessons from past experiences or even learnings from other organisations to inform their decision-making processes and grow productively.

Main Roads Western Australia, for instance, has taken on board the positive outcomes from its experiences using recycled construction and demolition waste in road construction and maintenance, and is moving to increase its activity in this space.

Late last year, the state’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation approved a new Recycled Construction Products Program Specification, which has allowed the Main Roads department to include crushed recycled concrete as an approved sub-base for road projects. The move has set in motion a new pilot project, announced last November, that will see 25,000 tonnes of the recycled C&D waste product rolled out on one of the state’s busiest road corridors this year – the Kwinana Freeway. Read more about the road agency’s major project on page 40.

While there are aspects of 2018 many of us would be glad to put behind us, last year held some significant milestones that have given the infrastructure sector, as a whole, a real leg-up for 2019.

Last year, the Queensland Government announced the introduction of a new policy that aims to bring building information modelling (BIM) to the forefront in government infrastructure projects, and is putting Queensland in a practical position for BIM implementation.

The Digital Enablement for Queensland Infrastructure – Principles for BIM Implementation policy has been produced for use by officers within the state government, including departments, agencies and statutory authorities and applies to those involved in any part of the lifecycle of new major construction assets.

The principles are intended to provide a framework that enables the use of BIM on the full lifecycle of government infrastructure projects and deliver measurable benefits.

The policy also outlines that the use of BIM will be required on all new government construction projects with an estimated capital cost of $50 million or more by 2023.

With a state government taking such a proactive step forward with BIM implementation, it shows that the real and practical benefits of BIM workflows are being recognised by the wider sector and on a larger scale. Steve Abson, CEO of the Infrastructure Association of Queensland, talks to us about what the new implementation policy means for the local sector. Find out more on page 30.

It is with great pleasure I open up the first issue of Roads & Infrastructure Magazine for 2019 with such exciting news to share. I hope this year proves to be a productive and positive one for the infrastructure industry.

Robbie Parkes Editor, Roads & Infrastructure Magazine

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

PUBLISHER Christine Clancy christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au EDITOR Robbie Parkes robbie.parkes@primecreative.com.au JOURNALIST William Arnott william.arnott@primecreative.com.au ART DIRECTOR/ PRODUCTION MANAGER Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au DESIGN Blake Storey, Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Nick Markessinis nick.markessinis@primecreative.com.au CLIENT SUCCESS MANAGER Justine Nardone justine.nardone@primecreative.com.au HEAD OFFICE Prime Creative Pty Ltd 11-15 Buckhurst Street South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia p: +61 3 9690 8766 f: +61 3 9682 0044 enquiries@primecreative.com.au www.roadsonline.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS +61 3 9690 8766 subscriptions@primecreative.com.au Roads & Infrastructure Australia is available by subscription from the publisher. The rights of refusal are reserved by the publisher.

ARTICLES All articles submitted for publication become the property of the publisher.

The Editor reserves the right to adjust any article to conform with the magazine format.

COPYRIGHT

Roads & Infrastructure Australia is owned and published

by Prime Creative Media. All material in Roads & Infrastructure Australia is copyright and no part may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means (graphic, electronic or mechanical including information and retrieval systems) without the written permission of the publisher. The Editor welcomes contributions but reserves the right to accept or reject any material.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information, Prime Creative Media will not accept responsibility for errors or omissions or for any consequences arising from reliance on information published. The opinions expressed in Roads & Infrastructure Australia are not necessarily the opinions of, or endorsed by the publisher unless otherwise stated.

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NEWS

DEMAND FOR CONCRETE EXPECTED TO RISE OVER NEXT FIVE YEARS – REPORT Major infrastructure projects underway in eastern Australia are expected to lift demand for concrete and related products, according to new figures from industry representative body Cement Concrete and Aggregates Australia (CCAA).

CCAA CEO Ken Slattery said the construction of the new Western Sydney Airport at Badgery’s Creek was expected to lift demand for concrete by at least one per cent over the next five years.

Melbourne’s Metro Rail Project was also highlighted as an infrastructure project with the potential to increase demand for concrete by another two per cent, according to Mr. Slattery.

This rise in demand also follows a record production year for Australia’s concrete, cement and aggregates industry with figures

from the CCAA finding more than 30 million cubic metres of pre-mixed concrete were produced across Australia in 2017.

In 2015, the total amount of pre-mixed concrete produced across Australia was estimated to be 27 million cubic metres, which grew to 28.5 million cubic metres in 2016, according to figures commissioned from industry research company Macromonitor.

The CCAA highlighted the concrete industry contributes more than $15 billion to the national economy each year, with more than 30,000 people employed directly by the industry and 80,000 estimated to be employed in work related to the industry.

Data released by the CCAA also found NSW construction projects are expected to consume an average of 9.5 million

cubic metres of pre-mixed concrete a year between 2018 and 2022, with Victoria following at around 8 billion cubic metres and Queensland predicted to grow to reach 7.2 million cubic metres a year.

“The boom in infrastructure projects such as WestConnex and NorthConnex in Sydney and the West Gate Tunnel in Melbourne is good news for the heavy construction materials industry and for the more than 110,000 Australians who are employed directly or indirectly in the sector,” Mr. Slattery said.

“Demand for concrete is increasing rapidly at a time when more and more planners realise what architects and builders have known for a long time: no other material is as versatile, sustainable and cost effective.”

RADAR TECHNOLOGY TRIAL TO REDUCE QLD RED LIGHT CRASHES The Queensland Government has implemented new technology that uses radar to detect vehicles about to run a red light.

Known as Hold the Red, the technology is part of a trial to reduce the risk of crashes caused by running red lights.

When a danger is identified, the opposing traffic lights are held on red to halt drivers waiting for the lights to turn green.

Queensland Minister for Transport

and Main Roads Mark Bailey said the innovation was already in use in Florida in the US where it has been credited with cutting collisions at intersections.

“Red light running is a complex problem.

There is no single reason why drivers do it but what we do know is that resulting accidents are likely to be T-bone crashes, which have a higher potential of causing death or serious injury,” Mr. Bailey said.

“Hold the Red lowers the risk of a crash

at sites where it is installed while still allowing for offenders to be penalised.”

Mr. Bailey said about 11 per cent of all serious casualties on Queensland roads occurred at intersections with traffic lights.

“During the past five years, 42 people have been killed and more than 3000 hospitalised in crashes at signalised intersections in Queensland,” he said.

The trial will be evaluated by independent consultants.

JOHN HOLLAND ACQUIRES RCR TOMLINSON RAIL After RCR Tomlinson entered voluntary administration in November 2018, John Holland was quick to scoop up the rail unit for an undisclosed amount.

The December sale was RCR’s first since McGrathNicol was appointed administrators to recover the company’s $590 million in debt with roughly 4000 unsecured creditors.

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

McGrathNicol administrator Jason Preston said that the rail business was an enticing business and a good fit for John Holland which has a solid presence in the industry.

“The sale preserves the jobs of circa 400 Australian employees with RCR O’Donnell Griffin Rail who will transfer to John Holland, and ensures the entitlements of those staff are preserved,” Mr. Preston said.

“RCR’s Rail business has an outstanding track record, with highly skilled staff and a blue-chip client base that made it an attractive target for prospective acquirers and a strategic fit for John Holland.”

Following this sale, Environmental Group Limited acquired RCR Tomlinson’s Energy Services business in a deal completed by the end of January.

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NEWS

FIRST SA ROAD BUILT WITH PLASTIC BAGS AND GLASS The first South Australian road built with soft plastics and glass at Happy Valley in the City of Onkaparinga will utilise plastic from approximately 139,000 plastic bags and packaging and 39,750 glass bottle equivalents.

Downer and City of Onkaparinga have partnered with resource recovery and recycling companies Close the Loop and RED Group for the project, following similar projects in NSW and Victoria.

Along with soft plastics and glass, toner from about 3200 used printer cartridges and more than 50 tonnes of recycled asphalt were also repurposed to create 265 tonnes of asphalt used to construct the road along Caribbean Crescent in Happy Valley.

Downer Executive General Manager Road Services Dante Cremasco said the milestone event demonstrated the importance of partnerships with other thought leaders to create economic, social

and environmental value for products that would more than likely end up in landfill, stockpiled, or as a pollutant in natural environments.

“Together with City of Onkaparinga and our partners, we have proved that with thought leadership and the tenacity to make a positive difference, we have set a new benchmark in the state when it comes to sustainability by creating new avenues to recycle and repurpose waste materials into new streams of use. It’s all about pulling products, not pushing waste,” Mr. Cremasco said.

“Further to the direct sustainability benefits, this cost-competitive road product called Reconophalt has enhanced properties of improved strength and resistance to deformation making the road last longer, and allowing it to better handle heavy vehicle traffic.”

City of Onkaparinga Mayor Erin

Thompson said this is an exciting South Australian first and demonstrates council’s commitment to working with industry on innovative and cost-effective solutions to a changing operating environment.

“The City of Onkaparinga manages and maintains over 1350 kilometres of sealed roads and works hard to ensure they’re well maintained as cost-effectively as possible and in line with leading asset management principles,” Mayor Thompson said.

“We also collect approximately 14,000 tonnes of recyclables every year. Major disruptions in international markets for recyclables over the last 12 months present significant challenges, as well as emerging opportunities.

“Creating local demand for recyclables products is one such opportunity and this is a fantastic example of what can be achieved by government working with industry.”

RE-ELECTED VIC GOVT MAKES NEW APPOINTMENTS IN TRANSPORT PORTFOLIOS Following its re-election in Victoria in November, the Andrews Labor Government has announced a new cabinet, including new appointments for the roads, transport and freight portfolios.

Jacinta Allan, formerly Minister for Public Transport and Employment, has been given the Transport Infrastructure portfolio in the new cabinet.

“The Andrews Government is embarking on the biggest infrastructure program Victoria has ever seen,” according to a statement from Premier Daniel Andrews’ office.

“To ensure this is delivered, Jacinta Allan takes on the portfolio of Transport Infrastructure, with responsibility for projects including the Level Crossing Removal Program, North East Link, West Gate Tunnel, Metro Tunnel and Suburban Rail Loop.”

Ms. Allan leads an all-female transport team with Melissa Horne made Minister 8

ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

Jacinta Allan leads an all-female transport team in the new Victorian cabinet.

for Public Transport and Minister for Ports and Freight, while Jaala Pulford takes on

the Roads, Road Safety and the TAC, and Fishing and Boating portfolios.

NEWS

NEW APPOINTMENTS TO BUILDING QUEENSLAND BOARD The Queensland Government has announced two new appointments to the Building Queensland board, both of whom will serve a three-year term, which began 3 December 2018.

Lesley Morris and Fiona Murdoch will replace the outgoing Graham Hooper and Jacqui Walters and join returning board members Alan Millhouse (chair), Catherin Bull and Kevin Hegarty.

Queensland Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick praised the appointees’ diverse mix of experience and skills they bring to the board.

“The appointees are highly experienced professionals who bring a range of skills in infrastructure to government, including business case analysis, regional infrastructure knowledge, transport planning and logistics and governance,” Mr. Dick said.

“The current board has a strong legacy, including oversight of the establishment of Building Queensland, and a substantial

Two appointments have been made to the Building Queensland board.

body of work in assessing major infrastructure proposals for transport, hospitals, water and community infrastructure.”

Building Queensland provides

independent advice to the Queensland Government on infrastructure priorities for the state, based on business cases, including cost benefit analysis and community benefit.

FIRST WORLDWIDE DRONES STANDARDS UNVEILED The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Draft International Standards for Drone Operations has been Final adoption of the first drone standards is expected in 2019.

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

released for public consultation, with the final adoption of the world’s first drone standards expected in 2019.

The rules, which form a voluntary code of practice, are the first set of international standards for drones.

“Most drone makers are doing everything they can, but some don’t use existing materials. They may not come from an aviation background, for example.

Everybody across the industry believes drones can be safe and of great benefit to mankind. Operators and service providers alike are keen to establish a baseline,” Robert Garbett, an ISO drone expert, said.

The standards include a flying “etiquette” around no-fly zones, geo-fencing technology that can stop flights in restricted areas, flight logging requirements as well as training and maintenance standards.

They also call on flyers to keep drone hardware and software up to date and have a human monitor for all flights.

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NEWS

AURECON APPOINTS GLOBAL CEO, REVEALS NEW LEADERSHIP TEAM Engineering and infrastructure advisory firm Aurecon has appointed its Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand William Cox as its new Global Chief Executive Officer.

His appointment aims to help lead the organisation’s growth and diversification across digital, advisory and Asia.

Current Aurecon CEO Giam Swiegers ends his fixed four-year term, which saw the company more than double its profits since 2015, on 1 February 2019.

Mr. Cox said it was a terrific opportunity to steer Aurecon during a time of significant growth and change for its industry.

“My focus areas for the immediate future are to consolidate and continue the growth trajectory in digital, advisory and in Asia where we see immense potential in transport infrastructure, the built

Louise Adams.

environment and fast-growing data centre sector,” he said.

Aurecon has also announced the appointment of its new Managing Director

Australia and New Zealand, Global CFO and Global COO. Louise Adams, previously Regional Director of Aurecon’s South Australian and Victorian practice, has been appointed to head the company’s ANZ business.

Francoise Merit, previously CFO for Australia and New Zealand, has been appointed as Aurecon’s Global CFO, with previous CFO Andrew Muller appointed as Aurecon’s new COO. Mr. Cox said each new leader is a seasoned, expert operator at the top of their field and capable of leading the charge as the business consolidates its growth and pursues new opportunities in the digital and advisory sectors and in Asia.

Mr. Muller and Ms. Merit began their new roles on 1 January 2019 and Ms. Adams’ appointment is effective 1 February 2019.

RECYCLED GLASS USED IN FREMANTLE ASPHALT RESURFACING The City of Fremantle has used recycled glass equivalent to around 2640 glass bottles to resurface the car park at the North Fremantle Post Office.

A warm asphalt mix used 10 per cent crushed glass as a substitute for traditional crushed granite aggregate, alongside recycled road base.

City of Fremantle Infrastructure Engineering Manager David Janssens said while recycled glass asphalt had been used on roads in the United States and Canada for many years, it’s not widely used in Australia.

“Extensive testing was undertaken by our supplier to ensure the material complied with our requirements and the glass would not come loose when cars drove over it,” Mr. Janssens said.

“We also had to make sure the glass being used had no sharp edges so it was safe for people to walk on and wouldn’t damage car tyres.

“Once we get an idea of how it performs 12

ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

Around 2640 glass bottles were used in the resurfacing project.

in North Fremantle, we’ll consider using recycled glass in other road projects, and our suppliers are exploring the possibility of using recycled plastic and rubber in asphalt as well.”

Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said the move was part of the city’s One Planet strategy, which focuses on reducing waste

and increasing recycling.

“Using recycled glass in asphalt for our roads and car parks could help to create an important local market,” Cr. Pettitt said.

“And because the glass asphalt is made at a much lower temperature, it also means using a lot less energy and producing less greenhouse emissions.”

Road Maintenance ROAD MAINTENANCE HAS BEEN SEALING CRACKS AND FIXING ROADS ACROSS AUSTRALIA FOR OVER 40 YEARS. ITS FOCUS ON RESEARCHING AND PERFECTING WAYS TO KEEP CRACKS FROM LEADING TO TOTAL FAILED AREAS HAS HELPED SAVE COUNCILS AND ROAD OWNERS THOUSANDS. THE COMPANY IS ALSO SET ON FINDING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR WASTE TYRES TO KEEP AUSTRALIA BEAUTIFUL.

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Strong relationships with manufacturers like Wirtgen have played a major role in SPA’s growth in the local market.

THRIVING AGAINST THE

TEST OF TIME IN THE 35 YEARS SINCE ITS INCEPTION, STABILISED PAVEMENTS OF AUSTRALIA HAS THRIVED BY DRIVING INNOVATION IN MATERIALS, MACHINES AND ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS FOR ITS WIDE BASE OF CUSTOMERS.

F

rom humble beginnings back in 1984, Stabilised Pavements of Australia (SPA) has developed into one of Australia’s leading providers of cold in-situ recycling and related solutions to asset owners and maintainers.

This growth has not been by chance or luck. It has come about through the commitment of the founders, Warren Smith and Tom Wilmot, in placing the company above their competition by providing specialised plant and leading engineering and technical solutions through partnerships.

Mr. Wilmot says the firm’s first slogan and ethic that built its business was “we will work with you”.

This has remained the backbone of SPA working with the development of stabilising agents with suppliers, improving machine capabilities with equipment manufacturer Wirtgen Group and working closely with customers to provide innovative, economical and stable pavement solutions.

In an industry where improvements to materials, equipment, process and 14

ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

engineering design are relatively common, providing this technical support also required Mr. Wilmot and Mr. Smith to keep abreast of new global innovations within the in-situ stabilisation and recycling space.

To this end, both men have, in many cases, helped lead the introduction and development of new pavement recycling technologies in Australia.

In 1994, SPA was the first company to import machinery capable of deep lift stabilisation. Through to 2000, the business was also working with binder suppliers to perfect economical, slow setting binders, resulting in improved constructability and pavement performance.

By 1996, the company became the first to reintroduce foamed bitumen stabilisation to the local market with Wirtgen technology. That same year, SPA introduced the reclaiming process, which brought profilers into the preparation of the pavement to reduce levels and combine the wearing course into the pavement prior to stabilisation.

The next year it introduced integrated binder spreading and between 2000

and 2003, the company introduced prequalification and accreditation systems with main roads, specific to stabilisation.

Finally from 2007 to 2013, the company expanded into a full national operation, including the southern region and Western Australia.

SPA and Wirtgen have had a good and long interactive relationship with experienced and focused people working together. This has resulted in many improvements with both equipment and stabilising processes.

“We have seen many of these ‘firsts’ grow into mainstays of the industry in Australia and the acceptance of foamed bitumen stabilisation as a process that uses all the existing road materials and upgrades the pavement to the equivalent of a deep lift asphalt,” Mr. Smith explains. “Today, that technology is used in every state of Australia and provides numerous long term benefits to the environment, the travelling public, asset owners and, of course, the tax-paying public.”

However, the introduction of new technologies can mean little if the benefits

UP FRONT

aren’t clear to the asset owner, or if the product/machinery doesn’t perform as intended. To manage these potential risks requires close collaboration and partnerships with material suppliers, equipment providers and customers alike.

Those collaborations underpin the SPA business today, General Manager David Berg says. “I’ve been with the business since 1988 and from small beginnings the company has developed strong relationships with local, state and federal government, Wirtgen – as a leader of equipment in this specialised industry – binder suppliers and the industry body AustStab,” he says. “Major contractors in the construction industry seek advice from the engineering expertise within SPA to assist in the delivery of their projects. In their selective fields, these partners are at the forefront of their industries and that is what we want to leverage, while also adding our own expertise to the customer offering.

“These relationships have developed over decades and helps us stay ahead of the curve in many respects and assist in maintaining our position at the head of the industry.”

Wirtgen’s stabilisation and recycling technology, for example, provided new avenues for the sector, and when the manufacturer was looking for a partner to introduce these new technologies to the Australian market, it approached SPA, as industry leaders, to be its first partner. As a result, SPA was the first to deploy both the Wirtgen WR2500 foam bitumen stabiliser and the WR2500K integrated binder spreading stabiliser in Australia.

“TODAY, THAT TECHNOLOGY IS USED IN EVERY STATE OF AUSTRALIA AND PROVIDES NUMEROUS LONG TERM BENEFITS TO THE ENVIRONMENT, THE TRAVELLING PUBLIC, ASSET OWNERS AND, OF COURSE, THE TAXPAYING PUBLIC.”

“Not only was that equipment and technology successfully introduced through this partnership, but it also helped us improve our product offering by enabling best in class foamed bitumen technology as well as integrated binder spreading,” Mr. Berg explains. “This, in turn, helped us expand the range of solutions we could offer clients which assisted them in achieving their budget and asset lifecycle objectives.”

The feedback SPA provided on the early machines went back to Wirtgen for assessment and was introduced as part of subsequent upgrades.

While some of the pavement material and design technologies weren’t unheard of, there were aspects of the detailed understanding of them that weren’t known locally. So SPA, with the assistance of Wirtgen, engaged offshore expertise to expand their knowledge of the technologies from pavement investigation to laboratory design methods and testing.

With the success of the recycling process in Australia, SPA, through its overseas affiliate, Stabilised Pavements International, was invited to establish services in Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and the UK. While the UK had an established recycling industry, SPA and Wirtgen introduced improved

techniques and quality to become a leading road recycling company in the UK. At the time, and to this day, Dave Collings from Louden International is a well-known leader in the field of pavement recycling and stabilisation. Getting him on board at a very early stage to assist in expanding SPA’s understanding and capability with regard to detailed in field and laboratory design and testing underpinned its efforts to get this new technology successfully specified, designed and constructed to the high standard necessary to deliver for its customers.

If a new pavement technology doesn’t perform in the field, the attention it gets will rarely be positive, which is why having an in-depth understanding of the technology, how it works and factors critical to its success be that design, materials or construction is immensely important. According to SPA and Wirtgen, without that high level of understanding, a small error at any point can banish a technology forever, which helps no-one – particularly when looking at the multitude of advantages pavement recycling has from cost, pavement life, traffic disruption and environmental perspectives.

“These are great examples of the power of enduring strong relationships. In this

SPA was the first to deploy the WR2500 and WR2500K machines in the Australian market.

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case, the rest of the industry watched what we were doing as pioneers and ultimately followed our lead,” Mr. Berg explains. “If we look back on some of the practices and technologies being employed in those days, these changes significantly improved the quality of the product which, in turn, increased the perception of stabilisation and its effectiveness in the market, and that is no small feat. But it’s also important to remember that our partners – Wirtgen in this case – achieved their objectives too.”

This highlights another principle well practised by SPA. The business is a vocal advocate of leading the entire industry supply chain (including pavement designers, material and equipment suppliers and contractors) to higher levels of performance to better serve all customers. This is evidenced through a multitude of examples, from being one of the founding parties of the Australian stabilisation association – AustStab – through to participation in training and knowledge sharing activities in Australia and abroad.

Given the challenges confronting some customer groups, SPA has made focused investments to assist these groups to grow their understanding and capability with respect to asset preservation and design.

This investment has been delivered by education through direct involvement SPA has undertaken stabilisation works across a wide cross-section of applications around the country.

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The partnership between SPA and Wirtgen has resulted in a number of technological highlights for stabilisation in Australia.

with its client base, or through the Centre for Pavement Engineering Education (CPEE)/AustStab, Pavement Recycling and Stabilisation short course. SPA has historically delivered portions of the course, utilising the experience of its engineering and delivery teams, which has been welcomed by attendees who gain the contractor’s insight and understanding.

Mr. Berg says through these initiatives the development of the stabilisation industry has increased, as well as educating clients

and end users to have a formidable insight into the industry.

“SPA has a strong presence as a national specialised stabilisation contractor in Australia, with a strong expertise and technical knowledge specific to the stabilisation industry shared within its more than 20 engineers,” he says. “With the experience of SPA as a contractor and Wirtgen as an equipment manufacturer, the industry will continue to develop into the future.”

UP FRONT

SHARING WORLD-CLASS RESEARCH THROUGH PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS CURRENT WORKSHOPS LEVEL 1 & 2 BRIDGE INSPECTION Brisbane, 12 - 14 March | Adelaide, 7 - 9 May | Rockhampton, 4 - 6 June | Perth, 23 - 25 July Port Melbourne, 3 -5 July | Hobart, 1 - 3 October | Brisbane, 19 - 21 October | Darwin, TBC

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To help provide councils with solutions for their daily infrastructure needs, ARRB shares knowledge through workshops on the practical application of our research.

We don’t just talk it, we walk it too. Our presenters work in the field, and have up-to-date, hands-on, practical knowledge of their subject ensuring real infrastructure solutions for your community.

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17

ENGINEERING BETTER

INFRASTRUCTURE WITH LEANER RESOURCES AND FEWER ENGINEERS IN GOVERNMENT ROLES, HOW CAN THE PUBLIC SECTOR MAKE THE MOST OF ITS ENGINEERING STAFF?

Peter McIntyre, CEO of Engineers Australia.

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UP FRONT

A

round 30 years ago, the number of engineers employed across all three levels of government numbered around 100,000, according to industry body Engineers Australia.

This number has since dropped to 22,000, the organisation cites using 2011 census data.

A 2012 Senate Inquiry into Australia’s lack of engineering skills found the shortage of skilled engineers had resulted in poorly conceived and delivered projects from the public and private sectors, leading to cost blow outs and delays.

“In part, this is because of a decreased engineering capability in the public sector – which impacts on the quality of tender selection and indeed even on the request for tender proposal itself,” the inquiry reported.

Industry association for consulting companies in the built environment, Consult Australia submitted to the inquiry that the loss of public sector engineering expertise had increased project costs by 20 per cent.

Around this time, the Australian National Engineering Taskforce also found that it had lost a significant amount of institutional knowledge and capabilities due to the reduction in its engineering workforce.

“We struggle to remain an informed client and are desperately trying to build technical expertise in key areas that cannot be met through the private sector,” the taskforce said in the report.

“The current situation is inadequate to meet current demands, let alone provide a sustainable model to meet future demands.”

Peter McIntyre, Engineers Australia CEO, says there have been a number of major cultural shifts that have led to flow on effects for the engineering sector.

“It is partly an effect of privatisation and partly a mindset that was applied for a period of time in many of the decision-making processes,” Mr. McIntrye says.

“During this, it was believed that if the accountants and economists took control, organisations could extract extra cost efficiency by focusing on the short term. When privatisation happened, there had been significant and necessary cost and headcount reductions.

“We’ve now reached a point in time where Australian organisations are lean organisations that need long-term technical expert to advise for the long term of our infrastructure assets, especially in light of climate change.”

Engineers Australia finds in its Government as an Informed Buyer report that procurement accounts for around 25 per cent of government expenditure.

To improve on how these tenders are processed, it highlights the importance of engineers in decision-making positions to turn governments into informed buyers.

This expertise can be critical across all levels of government during an infrastructure project’s concept, design, construction and operation phases.

Mr. McIntyre says engineers sit at the heart of infrastructure developments and should be involved heavily in projects to deliver safe and reliable assets at all levels of government.

“This is true for local governments as well as they are required to build or commission assets in order to serve the community and ratepayers,” he explains.

TM

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“Engineers play key decision-making roles for these local governments, identifying what should be built and the best ways to build them. Even when outsourcing to a private company, they are vital for overseeing contract management.”

Informed specifying and optioning for infrastructure projects can discern superior methods of solving a problem at a lower cost to the community.

For example, instead of deciding to design, build and maintain a two-lane bridge, engineers have the skillset and market awareness to find alternative solutions nationally or internationally, which could be potentially cheaper and provide better long-term community benefits.

Mr. McIntyre says engineers are also well placed to mitigate the risks of runaway costs affecting councils and can reduce project scope creep.

“If a council lacks a high-level understanding about how a project should be constructed, it can be easy to enter a contract that doesn’t define some critical elements. If a builder then approaches the council halfway through construction with unforeseen problems in the design, cost and time blow outs are likely,” he says.

“Ensuring a contract is fully scoped with clear specifications from the very beginning lets all parties know what is to be delivered.

Engineers provide a clear understanding of project requirements and can determine the appropriate price to tender.”

Local councils can reduce asset

Engineers are well placed to mitigate the risks of runaway costs affecting councils.

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“SMART COMPANIES INVEST IN GRADUATES, EVEN WHEN CONDITIONS AREN’T SO GOOD. YES, THERE IS NEED FOR ENCOURAGING ENGINEERING CANDIDATES INTO THE INDUSTRY WITH A NEED FOR A LITTLE BIT OF A TOP-UP FROM SKILLED MIGRANTS TOO – IT’S IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST THAT WE CONTINUE TO INVEST IN ENGINEERS.” deployment risks when operating as an informed buyer, analysing technical information and the long-term impacts of an asset. This could be by establishing the testing required for a potential bridge asset, determining how long that bridge is expected to last, and the future costs of replacement or repair.

As engineers are highly sought after and in demand, it can be difficult for some local governments, especially those in regional areas, to attract talent.

Engineers Australia National Manager of Public Affairs Jonathan Russell told Roads & Infrastructure Magazine in June last year that while a lot of transport infrastructure work is taking place in non-metropolitan areas, organisations can have trouble finding a local workforce.

“The companies that run those projects just need to be aware of where they find those skilled engineering professionals and provide incentives for them to relocate,” Mr. Russell said.

“Skilled migrants and female engineers are also the categories of engineers most available and where there is more talent for companies to source from.

“Smart companies invest in graduates, even when conditions aren’t so good,” he

said. “Yes, there is need for encouraging engineering candidates into the industry with a need for a little bit of a top-up from skilled migrants too – it’s in the national interest that we continue to invest in engineers.”

FILLING THE GAP To ensure governments are able to act as informed buyers, Engineers Australia has released a number of recommendations to improve procurement processes that focus on placing engineers in key decision-making positions for the procurement process.

It recommends agencies identify uncommon and specialised engineering expertise that is critical to their outputs and develop arrangements to develop potential partnerships with the private sector.

When it comes to maintaining and improving in house engineering experts, it adds that agencies should identify any remuneration gap between the public and private sector to retain employees.

Recruiting and training graduate engineers is also a key step it highlights to improve the supply of expertise in future.

Mr. McIntyre says Australia currently only graduates half of the engineers needed in Australia to be sustainable as a nation.

“We import a significant number to fill that gap, but there’s more the industry can do to help grow the profession in its entirety. We need to tell the story of the value of engineers and develop a narrative that shows how vital they are to modern life,” he explains.

“It’s more than just hard hats and pouring concrete. A significant amount of engineering work is now office-based and focused on technological innovation.

Quality engineering plays a major role in improving the effectiveness of labour in local, state and federal governments.

“We as a nation have an immense amount of infrastructure, from roads to bridges to tunnels, and we need to ensure we have the right people in the right positions to keep it well designed and safe.”

UP FRONT

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BY PRACTITIONERS, FOR

PRACTITIONERS

THE AUSTRALIAN ROAD RESEARCH BOARD’S NEW GENERATION OF WORKSHOPS IS PROVIDING THE ROAD AND TRANSPORT SECTOR WITH TAILORED, INTERACTIVE AND PRACTICAL SESSIONS, AIMED AT BOOSTING INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE SHARING AND BEST PRACTICE. Rather than being confined to a classroom, ARRB’s bridge inspection workshops feature a number of practical aspects.

L

ast September, Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) changed the way industry thinks about transport research when it unveiled its new high-tech premises in Port Melbourne.

The opening of ARRB’s headquarters in Melbourne signalled the beginning of a more modern approach for the company, which is not only reflected in the premises’ world-class materials lab and shared spaces, but in its renewed focus on workshops and knowledge sharing within the road and transport sector.

In mid-2018, ARRB switched up its focus on knowledge sharing events to move away from the traditional once-a-year conferences. The idea was to run more regular touch points with the Australian road and transport sector, to help boost the shared knowledge around best practice on topics such as sealed and unsealed roads,

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bridge inspection, basic geometric road design and high-friction surface treatments.

Now, the organisation runs nearly three workshops a month nationwide and about 50 free webinars a year on a diverse array of topics, hosted by in-house presenters who share their wealth of knowledge with attendees. Gareth Thomas, ARRB Principal Professional, Knowledge Transfer, says the benefits of more regular workshops and webinars for industry knowledge sharing is bolstered by the workshop series’ more comprehensive focus on practical outcomes.

“The changes we’ve made to our workshops take a more customer-facing approach, finding out what industry bodies and government agencies really need and the programs that benefit them. The conferences of the past were great, and suit a particular formula, but these workshops

and webinars are different – we’re looking at ways to make them more relevant to what stakeholders in the industry need right now,” Mr. Thomas explains.

To develop a relevant and practical workshop program, ARRB has partnered with the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia’s (IPWEA) Queensland branch – a partnership Mr. Thomas says has been key to the workshop’s early success in the Sunshine State.

“Industry bodies like IPWEA QLD have much more knowledge in the local government space, particularly with regards to areas like sealed and unsealed roads, which complements what we’re doing at ARRB,” he says.

“I think the big difference compared with other workshops out there is we’ve got this new model with real, practical outcomes, and there’s a big market for that in Australia.”

UP FRONT

Josh Seskis, Senior Professional Leader of Future Transport Infrastructure at ARRB, leads some of the new and improved workshops focused on bridge inspections.

He says the desire from industry for new and more practical outcomes has helped the bridge inspection workshops, in particular, extended beyond conventional theory-heavy sessions.

“There’s definitely the push for it in industry. The workshop is designed to be a really good place for people to gain an understanding of what bridge inspection is on paper, but also the practical ideals along the way too,” he says.

Rather than being bound to an office, Mr. Seskis is a presenter at the coalface of the sector, inspecting bridges on a daily basis – a recurring theme of ARRB’s new and improved workshop series, which, he says, places the practicality of the sessions front and centre for attendees.

“Getting people who are out there working in the industry presenting these workshops brings the classroom and fieldwork together into a practical and shared space – it’s just giving people more of an understanding of why we do inspections and how the asset information is captured.”

He says knowing how this information gathering process works and being knowledgeable about bridge inspections in general is such an important consideration in this kind of structural asset management.

“If you’re running a background on a

The workshop presenters are at the coalface of the industry and are practitioners in their own fields.

“INDUSTRY BODIES LIKE IPWEA QLD HAVE MUCH MORE KNOWLEDGE IN THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SPACE, PARTICULARLY WITH REGARDS TO AREAS LIKE SEALED AND UNSEALED ROADS, WHICH COMPLEMENTS WHAT WE’RE DOING AT ARRB.” bridge, the only real information you have is inspection data. When a bridge ages and changes over time, often the only thing we have to base decisions on is the inspection data.”

The data, he says, are exceptionally pertinent to local governments and practitioners at the moment, with many regional areas like Far North Queensland and parts of New South Wales seeing structures built more than 50 years ago, and even at the turn of the century, requiring repair or replacement.

“Structures built in the 1960s, for instance, are getting old. When they start to present

problems, they can then slow down the network access immensely,” Mr. Seskis says, adding that there is also increased demand for asset managers to do more with a lot less funding.

He explains that being smart about bridge inspection data and using it for managing the asset effectively are key practicalities that need to be taken into account, and are some of the reasons why ARRB’s workshops are placing emphasis on the practical side of bridge inspection by taking attendees for physical field testing and site inspections.

“There’s documentation out there covering the process of collecting and

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23

maintaining inspection data, but these workshops put attendees in an environment where they’re working with other practitioners who have a lot of shared experience and learnings,” he explains.

“These workshops are putting them in an environment with very experienced practitioners to learn a lot of the practical foundation work, but they allow you to fail in a safe environment. They’re not theory heavy, we’re actually doing the work and we want to bring those learnings back to the industry. Practicality is core focus for us. – it’s by practitioners, for practitioners.”

This year, following the success of the existing bridge inspection workshops, ARRB plans to expand the scope of its bridge workshops to include a practical focus on bridge asset management, complementing the organisation’s overall move to up the ante with its workshops series in 2019.

“We’re seeing that the sessions are working, we’ve had positive feedback from IPWEA QLD on the unsealed roads workshops as well as bridge inspection sessions too. Now, we’re looking at doing more national-focused workshops in 2019 to meet demand,” Mr. Thomas explains.

“With the success of our relationship with IPWEA QLD, we’ll also be chatting with all the state IPWEA organisations around Australia to see where else we can collaborate and make the content of these knowledge sharing workshops more relevant.

“We’re also working quite closely and collaborating with iRAP and ANCAP on driver distraction after finding that our webinar series produced some good outcomes when it came to safety aspects, which we’ve found to be well run in The bridge inspection workshops provide attendees with a collaborative environment to learn in.

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ARRB’s latest Basic Geometric Road Design Workshop in Port Melbourne proved extremely popular with industry.

“WITH THE SUCCESS OF OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH IPWEA QLD, WE’LL ALSO BE CHATTING WITH ALL THE STATE IPWEA ORGANISATIONS AROUND AUSTRALIA TO SEE WHERE ELSE WE CAN COLLABORATE AND MAKE THE CONTENT OF THESE KNOWLEDGE SHARING WORKSHOPS MORE RELEVANT.” webinar format.”

Aside from in-house experts like Mr. Seskis and its strong partnership with IPWEA QLD, ARRB’s established international partnerships are complementing its nextgeneration workshop sessions and webinars by emphasising knowledge transfer and best practice around the world.

“We’re looking at better types of pavement, such as EME2 and best practice around that, working with the Nation Asset Centre of Excellence in Queensland and talking to international bodies like the United Kingdom’s Transport Research Laboratory about what’s working for them and whether it will work in Australia,” Mr. Thomas explains.

“We’ve had other in-house sessions in ARRB with the likes of VicRoads, safety

groups and even freeway operators like EastLink to share findings with regards to driverless vehicles.”

Heading into 2019, Mr. Thomas says ARRB is continuing to bring together experience and knowledge on industry best practice through its new and improved workshop series, with an eye to expand further and introduce comprehensive five-day intensive sessions, or “mini-conferences”.

“In the case of road design, for instance, we want to be able to share knowledge on best practice for everything to do with the asset, including unsealed sections, cost benefit analysis, basic geometric design and even intelligent compaction,” he says.

“We’re not just going with the traditional formula anymore, and this is what we as an industry need more of.”

UP FRONT

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LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR THE DIGITAL

CONSTRUCTION SITE DUSTIN PARKMAN OF BENTLEY SYSTEMS SPEAKS TO ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE ABOUT NEW DIGITAL WORKFLOWS FOR CONSTRUCTION SITE DESIGN AND DELIVERY AND WHERE THE SOFTWARE PROVIDER’S LATEST CIVIL PRODUCT – OPENSITE – FITS IN THE EQUATION.

I

n 2016, Bentley Systems launched its OpenRoads and OpenBridge Designer brands. In 2017, it added OpenRail to its portfolio of digital design applications for the infrastructure market.

For the past three years, Bentley has been updating its entire suite of civil design products, aligning them more with building information modelling (BIM) workflows and analysis tools. Complementing the range of updates released in the past few years is OpenSite, which was announced at the Year in Infrastructure 2018 Conference in London late last year. Roads & Infrastructure Magazine was at the conference for the release and spoke with Dustin Parkman, Bentley’s Vice President of Civil Modelling and Visualization. Mr. Parkman explains what OpenSite means for infrastructure projects and how digital workflows are changing the nature of civil project delivery.

“In the old way of doing things, civil engineers would have a design application that did road, drainage [and] a couple of the big assets; and maybe 2D analytical stuff.

What we have been doing, and this has been an effort that started seven years ago, is building a whole new civil foundation for BIM and analysis. It started with OpenRoads designer in 2016, which we announced at that year’s Year in Infrastructure Conference,” Mr. Parkman explains.

Mr. Parkman adds that many of the fundamentals that comprise OpenRoads are also featured in OpenSite, but not in a linear context. “OpenSite is not linear – you’re more interested in pads, ponds and grading and it’s really more commoditised. It’s about cost savings and being able to rapidly design and build with a profitable margin.”

OpenSite has a range of modelling

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Dustin Parkman presenting at Bentley’s 2018 Year in Infrastructure in London.

applications for site construction projects, such as geotechnical, subsurface drainage and utilities. OpenSite users can also interface with high-end analysis products, such as PLAXIS – geotechnical engineering software that Bentley acquired in 2018.

“PLAXIS is really about analysing the impact of the soil condition and how that relates to a subsurface structure, whether that relates to a piling, a tunnel – it could be a retaining wall that has earth against it,” Mr. Parkman explains. “It gives users the ability to understand soil conditions and how that behaves with a structure, so that you can prevent things like structural failure.”

OpenSite allows engineers to analyse and design for not only the site, but the complex and intricate aspects of the project and how they interact with each other, including hydraulics, utilities, geotechnical aspects, the site modelling for pads, ponds and interfacing with buildings whether through Bentley Systems’ OpenBuilding products or

other kinds of multidiscipline systems.

“One of OpenSite’s key financial benefits is that it can provide more context than any other civil design product in the world. The application allows you to bring in all these things so you can make better decisions quickly, in a much more digital context, whether on [the] low- or high-fidelity side,” Mr. Parkman explains.

The application can be quite high in fidelity, utilising extremely detailed survey inputs like LiDAR, reality models or groundpenetrating radar for existing utilities to prevent clashes.

“All of this information and context can be taken into consideration during the analysis.” Cut-and-fill analysis of earthworks, for instance, isn’t a new concept, but Mr. Parkman says that OpenSite provides a major difference in that its optimisation engine will run millions of options to determine the most cost-effective model and show different scenarios to take into consideration

UP FRONT

to optimise site design.

Automation is king here, which Mr. Parkman asserts is a huge time saver. “You could do a 10 per cent conceptual design, which involves sketching out polygons and deciding where parking lots go, for instance.

Then you can run an analysis in OpenSite, and it will tell you [that] if you did it in a certain way you could reduce your cost by 10 per cent.”

As the top surface on a project site changes, things like drainage requirements will change as well. OpenSite has those analysis tools built into it for optimising the drainage flow and where catch basins and piping needs to go to avoid conflict or things like subsurface bedrock.

“By taking the geotechnical, existing subsurface utility information into consideration to your algorithm, you can really fine-tune things as opposed to just running the analysis on the top-level surface,” Mr. Parkman explains. “The toplevel surface is fine from a conceptual design standpoint, but as you get more and more data, you can get the analysis as [close to] 30 per cent design, and [possibly] 60 per cent,

and that’s something [few] design products [on the market] can do.”

OpenSite is compatible with Bentley’s other infrastructure brands, including OpenRoads and OpenRail. Its analysis capabilities also complement the infrastructure industry’s move towards more automated workflows between surveying, engineering and construction processes, a concept Bentley Systems calls “constructioneering”.

Constructioneering is a joint initiative between Bentley and surveying equipment specialist Topcon. It enables engineers to begin working with an accurate 3D model of current construction site conditions, as captured by Topcon’s photogrammetry and laser scanners. This model can then be processed into engineering-ready, 3D reality meshes using Bentley’s ContextCapture.

“The constructioneering story fits perfectly into OpenSite. It’s the same technology we’ve used with Topcon for heavy civil design, survey acquisition and continuous monitoring. OpenSite does this and almost all sites are using automated machine guidance, so that comes automatically,” Mr.

Parkman says..

“We will probably expand our constructioneering academies to have more site-orientated workflows in the future. But at the end of the day, the construction and project cycle is going to be much shorter for site projects than it is for linear, but it’s the same stuff. You’re going to have a number of data acquisition techniques whether it be terrestrial survey, LiDAR, reality modelling with drones, GPR. All that stuff is going to be relevant, no matter what you’re constructing.”

Aside from the benefits of utilising BIM workflows, automation and analysis in the civil site context through OpenSite, Mr. Parkman says a major drawcard for the application is its use as a financial savings tool.

“I think we’re far beyond the days of how can I design and get PDF deliverables out faster. OpenSite does that quickly and as well as any product on the market, but people don’t change how they do things for five or ten per cent savings on a design process. They will change if you can reduce five or ten per cent on the overall

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construction cost of your site, as it aligns better with business outcomes rather than the efficiencies of the engineering department,” he says.

“The margins onsite are extremely tight.

If you can save someone two per cent on construction that’s huge, because they’re probably only making a three per cent profit margin, now. By doing a few things better on the construction side, you can really start to impact the profitability for those firms by a magnitude of 30 or 40 per cent.”

Mr. Parkman says the civil sector still faces many challenges, and adopting digital workflows that are included in OpenSite can go a long way to improving efficiencies in the delivery process. “One of the things I hope it improves is not only civil site design, but making that whole geotechnical backbone a bit stronger, so that geotechnical data collection is more about an asset.”

For a roadway owner-operator, geotechnical data is their asset, and mining that data is just as important as sending out a crew to start the project.

“The land acquisition for a road project is massive, so the owner can build up a massive asset inventory of what the subsurface is over time. We already have all this information about the asset, but unfortunately it exists in filing cabinets and PDFs and so the data’s dark. Making that data open and having the ability to analyse it continually, and have civil products consume it as reality data, is something that I think will be a big advantage.”

For Mr. Parkman, adopting and adapting BIM methodologies in the civil infrastructure space has generally been slower than the vertical and industrial sectors, but he says applications like OpenSite will play a strong role in influencing the uptake of more digital engineering workflows going forward.

“It’s going to be a culture shock initially because it is a different way of doing things.

The site world is still very 2D-oriented, and the systems being used today aren’t extremely intelligent. It’s more about rapidly getting out the construction deliverables.

I think this will be a real game changer for how the industry thinks about it, and they can align the tool more with their business outcome rather than thinking of an oldschool consulting hours type of approach.

“When their goal in life is to bill hours, they’re not incentivised based on performance. They are incentivised by the number of hours it takes to complete a job. I think as those businesses catch up with the other civil and performance-based businesses, they’re going to want to use a tool like this because they want to put more profit in their business.”

Mr. Parkman says Australia is where there is an enormous opportunity and necessity for infrastructure asset owners to start thinking digitally and smarter around using datacentric software platforms, such as OpenSite.

“Australia is experiencing a huge spike in infrastructure that it hasn’t seen in probably 50 years. He says that the sharp spike in infrastructure projects means there is likely

more work than there are engineers, meaning supply cannot keep up with demand.

“You’re not going to be able to keep doing the same things you did 10 years ago. We’ve been working closely with New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania and even Queensland to some extent to explain what it means to start doing things much differently,” Mr. Parkman says.

“We’ve been doing the constructioneering academies throughout Australia with partners like Position Partners. I think people are receptive – they can move faster in my opinion, but I think they are waking up to the fact we can’t do things the way we did 15 years ago.”

The key, he says, is to design, deliver and operate infrastructure assets more efficiently, because manpower is a fixed commodity: “It’s a limited pool of resources with which you have to execute.”

Mr. Parkman asserts that the infrastructure sector has begun accepting the various digital concepts such as BIM methodologies and concepts like digital twins in general.

The next step is to implement them.

“At this point it’s not very revolutionary as everyone has bought into the idea.

Now we’re just blocking and tackling and getting people to do it. Change is hard for an organisation, and our industry in general is very risk adverse – they don’t jump, they take a step. We are seeing that everyone is making the right steps, and Bentley’s technology is helping to accelerate the possibilities.”

Mr. Parkman says OpenSite allows engineers to analyse and design not just the site but how different aspects of the project will interact.

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UP FRONT

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TOWARDS A

DIGITAL FUTURE WITH BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING (BIM) ON THE RISE IN QUEENSLAND AND THE STATE GOVERNMENT RELEASING A NEW IMPLEMENTATION POLICY, ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE FINDS OUT WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE LOCAL SECTOR.

F

or Queensland, the uptake of building information modelling (BIM) within the wider construction sector, including linear infrastructure, has been on the rise in recent years.

Steve Abson, CEO of Infrastructure Association of Queensland (IAQ), says there has been a surprising amount of BIM uptake in Queensland, particularly in Brisbane and the south-east of the state. He partly attributes the region’s rise in uptake, collaboration and knowledge sharing over the past few years to an active group of professionals joining with academia to further the application of BIM in the state – BrisBIM. “It’s now a very strong cohort of professionals from public and private sectors coming together to explore and

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

“PEOPLE ARE SEEING THE BENEFITS OF BIM BEYOND DESIGN, PARTICULARLY THE BENEFITS IN CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION OF LINEAR ASSETS, WHICH HAS BEEN A REALLY STRONG FEATURE OF QUEENSLAND IN LAST FEW YEARS.” get talking about BIM in the right context,” Mr. Abson says.

The non-profit group is now in its sixth year and has helped provide an avenue for asset owners, practitioners, contractors and others to come together and discuss, learn and share about BIM in the region.

Likewise, IAQ has been active in the field by way of its digital taskforce, working with government and contractors and promoting the benefits of mandating and benchmarking BIM practices with local agencies.

“People are seeing the benefits of BIM beyond design, particularly the benefits in construction and operation of linear assets, which has been a really strong feature of Queensland in last few years,” he adds.

The Cross River Rail Delivery Authority (CRRDA), the organisation tasked with delivering the state’s 10.2-kilometre-long Cross River Rail project, identified and pursued the opportunities presented

by BIM early on. Through its “Project DNA”, which stands for “Digital Network

UP FRONT

Approach”, CRRDA made a commitment to put BIM and digital modelling at the centre of everything it does.

“The CRRDA was the first to really take the step of implementing BIM as part of its tender process for the tunnel and stations design. They asked tenderers to submit project proposals in BIM using a common data environment (CDE). They’ve really done that ahead of policy because they could see the benefits.”

While the conversation around BIM in infrastructure has been bubbling away in the background, Mr. Abson says the next step to increase the uptake and development of BIM in Queensland has really been in the hands of the Queensland Government, which has now acknowledged the need to focus on BIM workflows in infrastructure projects and taken action.

In November last year, the state government announced the introduction of a new policy that aims to bring BIM to the forefront in government infrastructure projects, and is putting Queensland in a practical position for BIM implementation.

The Digital Enablement for Queensland Infrastructure – Principles for BIM Implementation policy has been produced for use by officers within the state government, including departments, agencies and statutory authorities and apply to those involved in any part of the lifecycle of new major construction assets.

The uptake of BIM in Queensland has been on the rise thanks to efforts of groups such as BrisBIM.

CEO of Infrastructure Association of Queensland Steve Abson.

This includes planning, procurement, design contract management, construction, operation or maintenance.

The principles – under the subsections of ‘Open’, ‘Managed’, ‘Effective’ and ‘Supported – are intended to provide a framework that enables the use of BIM on the full lifecycle of government infrastructure projects and deliver measurable benefits.

The policy also outlines that the use of BIM will be required on all new government construction projects with an estimated capital cost of $50 million or more by 2023.

At the time of the announcement, Queensland Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick said BIM is a “win-win” for designers, builders, asset managers and stakeholders delivering government infrastructure.

“It’s a collaborative and productive way of working that will help us to better design, construct, manage and operate the assets that we built,” Minister Dick said.

“This will ultimately de-risk projects by improving their on-time and on-budget delivery, as well as reduce workplace heath and safety issues.”

Mr. Abson calls the announcement of the

principles the first step towards the use of digital engineering in major Queensland infrastructure projects.

“It’s really creating potential. Companies have been a bit reluctant to invest in BIM training and intelligence and this provides a lot more certainty and will start to shape the future,” he explains.

Mr. Abson says some organisations have managed to build a strong business case for investing in BIM internally, but it has always needed a certainty in standards to create wider investment, which can only really come from government.

Importantly, the principles are also intended to provide industry with a level of confidence in the state’s staged adoption of BIM over the next five years towards the 2023 target.

“It’s an achievable target and it means each government agency needs to develop particular steps for BIM implementation in their respective portfolios, which also come under the government’s overarching control of those standards,” he says.

“What value would BIM add to a new hospital, for instance? The benefits it would add to a linear project would be different to that.”

“The value created by BIM should ideally pull through each stage of project roadsonline.com.au

31

planning, design and delivery and come back to the delivery agency and final asset owner. While planning and concept design activities are starting to unlock value through BIM, this isn’t flowing strongly into the major project delivery stages yet.”

Those delivering the infrastructure – the designers and contractors – are then the ones that Mr. Abson sees as playing a key role here and who can benefit from the flow-on effects of the Queensland Government’s move towards BIM implementation, if they embrace it.

“Contractors have been using digital ‘serious games’ to simulate critical work sequences, de-risk activities and assist them in winning work for a number of years, so there is an appetite out there,” he says.

“But, to really embed this technology, an industry growth centre is required to provide support and education.

Companies out there are either at the high end of the BIM spectrum or have zero capability – and it will often all be construct-only contractors at zero and sophisticated design houses at the high end. But it’s important everyone gets up to the same standard,” he explains.

“CONTRACTORS HAVE BEEN USING DIGITAL ‘SERIOUS GAMES’ TO SIMULATE CRITICAL WORK SEQUENCES, DE-RISK ACTIVITIES AND ASSIST THEM IN WINNING WORK FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS, SO THERE IS AN APPETITE OUT THERE.” “Things have got to start to change in that delivery environment to really unlock the full benefits. There are a lot of things that have got to change for that to happen.”

He emphasises the need for collaboration in industry in taking the steps made from the release of the state’s implementation policy further – a move that is not without its challenges.

“The extent of any collaboration through BIM is currently reliant on the terms of the project deeds, which is one of the barriers looking forward,” Mr. Abson says.

He cites an example of a major design and construct road project in NSW where the contractor is required to use BIM but has to submit 2D drawings to the independent verifier to achieve sign-off of each individual drawing in a 21-day cycle time.

“The bigger the project, the more collaboration you need. With more end

users you will create far more benefits if your supply chain is equipped and using a CDE well.”

Mr. Abson believes industry is starting to understand the immense benefits of working with BIM, but it’s still very patchy.

The challenge, he says, revolves about certainty and educating people on the benefits.

“Cross River Rail is already a bit of a pilot for BIM in Queensland. But trialling different BIM platforms on smaller projects will also help iron out any issues,” he says.

“Consultation with organised groups like BrisBIM, the private sector and other experienced stakeholders overseas needs to continue. There are all kinds of key decisions to make over next couple of years and I think it’s critical that the hard work starts now and that collaboration on this critical initiative continues.”

The policy outlines that BIM will be required on all new state government construction projects with an estimated capital cost of $50 million by 2023.

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

UP FRONT

Australasia’s largest dedicated bulk handling conference & exhibition MELBOURNE

1-3 APRIL 2020 IN CONJUNCTION WITH

Media partners AUSTRALIA

Association Partner

AUSTRALIA

REVIEW

REVIEW

bulkhandlingexpo.com.au roadsonline.com.au

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SAVE THE DATE

1 ST - 3 RD APR I L 2020 ME L B O U R N E CO N VE N T IO N & E XH I B I T I O N C E N T R E

SUSTAINABILITY | AUTOMATION

I N D U ST RY 4 . 0 | E - CO M M E R C E

SAFE SAMPLING OF HOT

BITUMEN FROM ROAD TANKERS

AUSTRALIAN ASPHALT PAVEMENT ASSOCIATION, IN CONJUNCTION WITH ITS INDUSTRY PARTNERS, IS GIVING THE PAVEMENTS SECTOR AN OVERVIEW OF THE RECOMMENDED SAFETY PROCEDURES THAT NEED TO OCCUR WHEN SAMPLING HOT BITUMEN FROM ROAD TANKERS.

B

itumen and binders in Australia are tested and certified to national specifications at the point of manufacture or supply. In recent years there has been an increasing focus on assessing the properties of bitumen at the point of delivery, for example, at the point of transfer into tanks at asphalt plants or sprayer trucks at road sealing sites.

In order for this to happen, samples need to be taken during the transfer process of bitumen from a road tanker into a static tank or sprayer. The practice of sampling bitumen on site is an activity that involves hazards as it requires personnel to be in

Samples need to be taken during the transfer from a road tanker into a static tank or sprayer.

36

ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

close proximity to free-flowing hot bitumen.

It is therefore very important to follow a recommended sampling procedure that minimises any risks to the operator and helps to ensure that a representative uncontaminated bitumen sample can be obtained.

In conjunction with industry personnel, Nigel Preston from Viva Energy, together with Australian Asphalt Pavement Association (AAPA), has put together a video illustrating a recommended procedure for the safe sampling of bitumen from road tankers.

The procedure highlights the key steps that should be followed, focusing on safety on

the operative responsible for obtaining the sample. Mr. Preston won both the NSW and national industry roadworker safety award for this initiative.

Sampling bitumen from a road tanker needs to take place during discharge. For any bitumen discharge, the road tanker should be on flat, clean ground with no ignition sources within a 10-metre radius of the tanker. Prior to discharge, all pipework should be securely connected and checked, then discharge commenced under suction. In order to obtain a sample, the discharge must be interrupted so that bitumen is allowed to flow under gravity from the sample valve.

Correct PPE is essential. The operator must wear neck-to-toe protective clothing, safety footwear, safety glasses and face shield, hard hat, balaclava and

The sample containers should be metal paint-style tins with around four litres capacity.

elbow gauntlets in order that they are fully protected in case of any spills.

Once the discharge has been stopped, a large slops bucket should be placed on the ground underneath the sample valve to collect any drips or minor spillages. Around two litres of bitumen should then be drained into the slops bucket to clear any residual bitumen from the previous load and also clear any flushings that may have settled in the sump or the pipework.

The sample containers should be metal paint-style tins of around four litres’ capacity with open top lids. Prior to taking a sample, the slops bucket should be moved to one side and a sample tin placed directly under

the valve. The sample point should be less than two feet above flat ground. Under no circumstances should the operator taking the sample hold the tin during filling.

Approximately 750 millilitres to one litre of bitumen should then be allowed to flow into the tin. The sample should then be carefully placed to one side on level ground and allowed to cool with the lid partially covering the opening.

Ideally, duplicate or triplicate samples should be taken in the event that subsequent retesting of bitumen is required.

It is very important that clear, legible labels are attached to the samples providing the following information: the grade of bitumen,

the supplier, the date of sampling and the batch or shipment number from which the sample was taken.

The above details will need to be completed by the operator taking the sample. Labels should then be placed on the side of the tins (not on the lid) and the tins placed to one side and allowed to cool.

Adherence to the above procedure should ensure that samples are obtained safely and are representative of the grade of bitumen being supplied. Sampling should not take place in windy conditions or if the tanker is parked on uneven ground.

Overall sampling of as-delivered bitumen is a problematic exercise as it is carried out in a relatively uncontrolled environment, usually with untrained personnel. Handling hot bitumen carries associated hazards and onsite sampling introduced unnecessary risks to the bitumen delivery operation.

While AAPA has provided a recommended safe procedure for sampling bitumen from road tankers, the official position of the association is that this activity should only occur when extenuating circumstances dictate. There are risks involved with road tanker sampling and the best way to manage these risks is for them to be eliminated altogether.

To view the safety video, please visit: www.aapa.asn.au/safe-sampling-ofbitumen

Clear, legible labels with key information need to be attached to the samples.

roadsonline.com.au

37

FIXING THE

FUTURE

THROUGH TRIALS OF ITS CRUMB RUBBER BINDER ACROSS AUSTRALIA, ROAD MAINTENANCE AIMS TO IMPROVE THE UPTAKE OF THE SUSTAINABLE APPROACH NOW AND WELL INTO THE FUTURE.

The trial on Craig Road in Devon Meadows was a cold joint, with no treatment needed.

38

ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

ASPHALT NEWS

S

ince the establishment of tyrederived crumb rubber as a viable sustainable and performancebased material for use in road construction and maintenance, the scope for its use across Australia has gradually increased.

For nearly two-and-a-half years, crumb rubber binder from Victoria-based firm Road Maintenance has been used in a number of trials around Australia.

The first such instance was a trial with the City of Casey in Victoria near the end of 2017, where 8500 tonnes of crumb rubber asphalt, incorporating the binder, was used across a variety of road surfaces.

Similar trials of Road Maintenances’ binder was also used in crumb rubber asphalt trials for Cardinia Shire Council in Victoria and City of Mitcham in South Australia, which owner Max Fitzgerald says have been great examples of the environmentally conscious and sustainable practice in action in various applications.

“Approximately 2600 truck tyres, or 13,000 car tyres, were disposed of in the trials,” Mr. Fitzgerald says. “We’d like to thank the City of Casey, Cardinia Shire Council and City of Mitcham, for trialling our odour-free scrap rubber binder. And a special thank you to Top Coat, South East Asphalt, R & C Asphalt, Tyre Stewardship Australia and RAMS – South Australia for successfully blending and laying Road Maintenance’s scrap rubber binder asphalt onto the roads for the last 2.5 years.”

The trials demonstrated the applications of the product in different areas and to different tests, which Mr. Fitzgerald says has been a great example of the versatility and benefits of using crumb rubber in road construction and maintenance.

“Over 9000 tonnes of odourless scrap tyre asphalt has been successfully trialled as a base and top coat layer, plus one original asphalt failed area in Station Road, Tooradin. It was even used next to a primary school, in residential areas and on main roads, with no complaints about odour or performance in the trials,” he says. “Odourless scrap tyre binder allows content to reach below six per cent binder in asphalt and we’ve been able to action that.”

Mr. Fitzgerald says crumb rubber’s performance and environmental

“OVER 9000 TONNES OF ODOURLESS SCRAP TYRE ASPHALT HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY TRIALLED AS A BASE AND TOP COAT LAYER, PLUS ONE ORIGINAL ASPHALT FAILED AREA IN STATION ROAD, TOORADIN.” sustainability are proved internationally, giving 50 to 100 per cent more life out of roads and is highly resistant to wear and minimises rutting, tyre noise and potholing. “This was successfully laid with asphalt at 130 degrees Celsius. There is no cold joint, better skid resistance and it can be laid in thinner layers, as laid in the Centre Road trial for City of Casey.”

Similar to the application of scrap tyres in asphalt applications, Road Maintenance is also trialling the use of pyrolysis oil made from waste plastics for heating its plant and the crack sealing units, which helps reduce the environmental footprint of asphalt roads.

Mr. Fitzgerald says the product has the potential to use a lot of plastic waste and prove a new and untapped market for waste streams in road construction and

Road Maintenance’s crumb rubber binder has been used in various applications, including roundabouts in residential areas.

maintenance operations.

As more local governments and contractors around Australia continue to build the market for crumb rubber use in road applications, Road Maintenance aims to foster that growth.

“We’re now seeking companies with expressions of interest in leasing blending plants to do rubber polymer blends in their depots using our formulas,” Mr. Fitzgerald says. “Over the next few years, all asphalt binders are going to be modified blends, and a lot of the smaller companies have to start preparing for that. We can help them in working with different formulas and help them really understand the process.”

“All new blends should be performancebased. Our roads are too important.”

Asphalt was laid at 130 degrees Celsius with no problems on Station Road, Tooradin.

roadsonline.com.au

39

Main Roads WA is exploring options for the use of C&D waste in roads, namely on the Kwinana Freeway.

RECYCLED ROADS

ON THE RISE

MAIN ROADS WESTERN AUSTRALIA IS INCREASING ITS USE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF RECYCLED CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION WASTE IN ROAD CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE THROUGH A NEW PILOT PROJECT AND PRODUCT TESTING SCHEME.

W

ith a review of its waste strategy last year, the Western Australian Government has outlined some key targets in its draft Waste Strategy 2030 that aim to take the state’s waste management processes to the next level.

One target included in the strategy is for construction and demolition (C&D) waste, the aim of which is to increase material recovery to 75 per cent by 2020.

Main Roads Western Australia (MRWA) is already setting the benchmark for increasing the use of C&D waste in new and sustainable ways and taking up the challenge laid down in the strategy.

For MRWA Principal Advisor Sustainability Louis Bettini, the hierarchy of sustainability known as “reduce, reuse, recycle” is an ethos that informs and helps guide the road authority’s decision-making processes.

“The most effective way to increase sustainability is to reduce the amount of waste in the first place. Main Roads can contribute to this by ensuring it maximises the lifespan of its roads through good design and construction using durable materials, and encouraging the reuse of materials wherever possible,” Mr. Bettini explains.

Much of the state’s road network is 40

ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

rehabilitated or strengthened with in-situ recycling processes to reuse the existing materials, rather than replace them, when they reach their end of life.

Crushed recycled concrete (CRC) has been used on a number of MRWA projects in the past, which Mr. Bettini explains has performed well.

“The material makes an excellent subbase under full depth asphalt pavements, providing a stiff underlying layer that will help extend the life of the pavement,” he says.

The authority also uses plastics in asphalt and other bituminous products while encouraging suppliers to source recycled plastics where possible. “Different plastics have different effects on the bitumen and asphalt and must meet quality requirements to prevent detrimental impacts on service life,” Mr. Bettini adds.

Late last year, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) approved the new Recycled Construction Products Program Specification, which has allowed the Main Roads department to include CRC as an approved sub-base for road projects. The move has set in motion a new pilot project that will see the recycled C&D waste product

rolled out on one of the state’s busiest road corridors – the Kwinana Freeway.

In November last year, Western Australian Environment Minister Stephen Dawson and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti announced the Roads to Reuse (RtR) pilot.

The RtR supports MRWA in using recycled C&D for road construction, namely through a pilot project set to take place on the Kwinana Freeway Northbound Widening Project.

The project will see 25,000 tonnes of CRC used on the Kwinana Freeway works between Russell Road and the Roe Highway in early 2019.

CRC will be used as road sub-base under full depth asphalt on the project. This will involve laying a 150-millimetre-thick layer of the product, which will form the stiff support layer under approximately 250 millimetres of asphalt.

The material is a granular material mixture of fine-grained and coarse soils and crushed aggregate up to 20 millimetres in size, which will be placed by grader – like conventional quarry crushed rock-base material.

Aside from the environmental benefits of using the CRC as a sub-base, Mr. Bettini says it includes positive engineering properties,

Credit: shutterstock.com

ASPHALT NEWS

including strength.

“Previous experience with the product found it requires less water for compaction and requires less work to achieve compaction than limestone during construction,” he says.

“The residual cement in the crushed recycled concrete is partially reactivated and begins to re-cement over time. This is beneficial under full depth asphalt due to the increased stiffness and strength.”

He says the material can also be used as a base-course layer with thin asphalt layers on low traffic roads, as demonstrated by a number of local government authorities.

The Kwinana Freeway project is part of a greater push not just from MRWA, but other organisations and government bodies to increase the recycling of C&D waste in the state.

“Main Roads, the DWER, the Waste Authority and the Waste Recycling Industry have been collaborating for some time to develop an overall system for the use of recycled C&D waste in WA,” Mr. Bettini explains.

“Main Roads’ role is as the end user and, Around 25,000 tonnes of crushed recycled concrete will be used on the Kwinana Freeway project.

to ensure the success of the pilot trial, the Waste Authority is providing some seed funding to assist the industry supply recycled product competitively.”

DWER has provided the new Recycled Construction Products Program Specification, which includes a new product testing scheme with extensive testing by the supplier too ensure the product is safe and that hazardous contaminants are below maximum permissible levels set by the Department of Health. In addition to supplier testing, DWER will also undertake random independent audit testing to ensure the reliability of supplier testing and processes.

As part of the project, a new product testing scheme is being used to help C&D recyclers with costs associated with the sampling and testing required to ensure all product meet appropriate specifications and are free of contaminants.

Mr. Bettini says, in the first instance, the product testing scheme will provide end users confidence in the end product, assist the industry to improve processes to manage contamination over time and assist in dealing with issues of contamination if they do occur.

“The product testing scheme and the independent audit testing will assist industry by demonstrating contamination is being managed for the safety of the community and workforce working with the product,” he says.

“It involves extensive testing by the supplier to ensure hazardous contaminants do not exceed maximum permissible levels set by the Department of Health.”

The testing is focused on ensuring contamination is reliably managed below permissible maximum limits, and that testing will be undertaken and assessed during the trial.

The road authority has previously trialled and used the material successfully to the extent that, while performance and engineering properties will be monitored for a number of years, those results are not required before expanding use to other projects.

Mr. Bettini says there are a number of steps required for suppliers for CRC to gain approval for their quality processes, but supply is anticipated to commence in early 2019, when the pilot project is expected to commence.

There has been a significant push for the project to go ahead, Mr. Bettini explains, considering the million tonnes of C&D waste that goes unrecycled in Western Australia each year. The initiative also complements the direction MRWA is taking with regards to the consideration of safety, environmental, economic and community benefits and impacts as a whole.

The road authority has a long history of minimising use of raw materials and reusing and recycling materials where possible, which Mr. Bettini says has been driven by the need to reduce costs and to preserve finite sources of good road building materials – a sound notion, from both economic and sustainability perspectives.

“For example, crumbed scrap rubber has been used by Main Roads in bitumen sealing for over 30 years to extend the life of seals in certain applications. Similarly, CRC is expected to be a cost-effective material as its usage increases,” he says.

“The seed funding to get the industry up and running will accelerate take-up considerably.”

MRWA has already identified an ongoing program of projects that can utilise the recycled material if the trial’s successful.

The authority also has other projects targeted for early 2019 to trial the use of CRC as aggregate in new concrete and is already looking at trials of retaining wall blocks manufactured from the product.

“We recognise that consistently using the product will help provide confidence to local governments in using increased quantities of CRC, instead of virgin quarry materials,” Mr. Bettini adds.

“Main Roads recognises the need to take the lead to help demonstrate high-quality recycled products can be produced and used in WA. This project is a small step towards greater ongoing use of the product in WA by Main Roads and local government authorities.” roadsonline.com.au

41

CONTRACTS

– IN BRIEF

ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE PROVIDES AN UPDATE ON SOME OF THE MAJOR PROJECT CONTRACTS AND TENDERS RECENTLY AWARDED AND OUT TO MARKET ACROSS THE AUSTRALIAN INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR. NEW SOUTH WALES Contract won for landmark $476m North Sydney station The NSW Government has awarded its new Victoria Cross Station and 40-storey commercial building contract to Lendlease, which will design and deliver both structures.

JV selected to deliver $3.9b WestConnex M4-M5 Rozelle Interchange A joint venture has been selected to deliver the $3.9 billion WestConnex M4-M5 Rozelle Interchange.

John Holland and CPB Contractors are expected to begin construction on the project by mid 2019, with construction to conclude in 2023.

Contracts won to deliver Parramatta Light Rail – Stage 1 The New South Wales Government has awarded a Downer/CPB Contractors joint venture the $840 million contract to build Stage 1 of the Parramatta Light Rail, which will connect Westmead to Carlingford in Sydney with a 12-kilometre, two-way track.

Tender awarded to build $18.5m Charleyong Bridge The New South Wales Government has awarded the contract to build the new $18.5 million Charleyong Bridge across the Mongarlowe River on Main Road 92 to SRG Civil.

The structure replaces an existing timber bridge, originally opened at the beginning of the 20th century.

NORTHERN TERRITORY Tender open to improve access and flood immunity in NT The Northern Territory Government has opened the tender to bituminise the Litchfield Park Road Loop and undertake the road’s final upgrade and sealing.

Construction will feature the installation of a new bridge over the Finniss River and a sealed two-lane, two-way rural arterial road.

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

QUEENSLAND Geotechnical works contract won for Inland Rail tunnels The Australian Rail Track Corporation has awarded a $23 million geotechnical investigations contract to Golder Associates in preparation to build the 8.5 kilometres of tunnels on Gowrie to Kagaru section of Inland Rail.

JV secures $75m Capricorn Hwy duplication contract A Fulton Hogan and SMEC joint venture has been awarded the contract for the $74.99 million Capricorn Highway duplication project between Rockhampton and Gracemere, which will widen more than five kilometres of highway from two to four lanes.

VICTORIA EOI open for North East Link packages The Victorian Government has opened Expressions of Interest for the $200 million early works package on the North East Link and is also seeking builders for the $7-9 billion primary works.

Three contracts awarded for Melbourne’s biggest road repair blitz The Victorian Government has awarded contracts to Downer EDI Works, Fulton Hogan Industries and Sprayline Road Services as part of its new $183 million program to repair and resurface suburban roads and major highways across Melbourne.

BUSINESS INSIGHT

& INFRASTRUCTURE

IGNITE YOUR 2019 SALES AND MARKETING DRIVE TODAY! ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE AUSTRALIA is the industry’s top resource for the latest developments, and in-depth features.

In the March 2019 issue of Roads & Infrastructure Magazine we’ll include two new promotional features on Surveying Equipment and Transport Services.

FEBRUARY 2019

& INFRASTRUCTURE

AUSTRALIAN STORY Stabilised Pavements of Australia’s long and innovative journey with Wirtgen machinery

TO GET ONBOARD AND FIND OUT MORE PLEASE CONTACT: NICK MARKESSINIS Business Development Manager nick.markessinis@primecreative.com.au or call 0422 800 920

TOWARDS A DIGITAL FUTURE QLD’s BIM implementation policy Official media partners of

RECYCLED ROADS C&D waste in roads on the rise in WA roadsonline.com.au

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AUSTRALIA’S ONLY SPECIALIST ROAD MANAGEMENT, CONSTRUCTION AND CIVIL WORKS MAGAZINE AUSTRALIA’S ONLY SPECIALIST ROAD MANAGEMENT, CONSTRUCTION AND CIVIL WORKS MAGAZINE roadsonline.com.au

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C&D waste in roads on the rise in WA RECYCLED ROADS QLD’s BIM implementation policy TOWARDS A DIGITAL FUTURE

AUSTRALIA’S ONLY SPECIALIST ROAD MANAGEMENT, CONSTRUCTION AND CIVIL WORKS MAGAZINE roadsonline.com.au

43

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

BY STEWART GEEVES AUSTSTAB ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND AGM Preparations are well underway for the 2019 AustStab Annual Conference and AGM, to be held at the RACV Royal Pines, Gold Coast, from Tuesday 23 to Thursday 25 July, 2019.

One major change for this year’s event will be the increase in time allocated to technical sessions. Speakers will be announced through our website or those connected to our LinkedIn account. It is expected that four technical sessions will be included in the program after lunch on the 24th July.

The Annual Conference and AGM will also include the Awards of Excellence. The winners will be announced during the Gala Dinner on 24 July.

Nominations for submissions for the awards will be requested in late February or early March 2019 and is expected to include these categories: • Occupational Health and Safety

be the competitive and occasionally controversial AustStab Golf Day. Members are encouraged to stay and participate in the various working groups to held on the morning of 25 July, including cement and lime, bitumen and training/ promotions.

Those considering attending are encouraged to contact Kristy Reynolds on 0414 911 677 or email enquiry@auststab.com. au for more information.

Stewart Geeves.

• Industry Excellence in Innovation, Research or Education • Excellence In Sustainability • Recycling in Local Government • Young Stabiliser of the Year.

On the Tuesday of the conference will

AUSTROADS PUBLICATIONS UPDATE Practitioners are encouraged to keep an eye out for the revision to AGPT04DGuide to Pavement Technology: Stabilised Materials, which is expected to be published in mid-year. Although the changes are expected to be generally minor, there will be some revisions to guidance around design procedures for stabilised subgrades and pavements.

CEO’S MESSAGE

BY GRAHAM HENNESSY

T

he new year is now well underway and AustStab looks forward to a busy and productive 2019 for our members.

A number of significant road projects, including the Newell Highway and Pacific Highway, are underway, where foam bitumen stabilised pavements are the preferred pavement option. The confidence state road authorities are showing in this pavement type is encouraging for our industry. As a consequence of this, Austroads has invested in further research into the performance of foam bitumen stabilised pavements to gain a better understanding of performance characteristics such as rutting and fatigue life. The aim is to eventually further refine 44

ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

design procedures for foam bitumen. The results of this research will be reported in due course.

At the other end of the traffic spectrum, AustStab, in conjunction with IPWEA and Narrabri Shire Council, has completed a second trial of lime stabilisation of unsealed black soil pavements.

This trial follows an earlier trial carried out at Goondiwindi in 2016. The aim was to create all weather pavements which will provide year road access for local residents as well as reduce maintenance costs for local councils.

This trial was completed in early November 2018 and a summary report of the trial is included in this issue. For further details of the trial, contact AustStab.

Graham Hennessy.

REPORT: BLACK SOIL STABILISATION TRIALS, NARRABRI, NOVEMBER 2018 AUSTSTAB PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF THE BLACK SOIL STABILISATION TRIALS THAT TOOK PLACE IN COORDINATION WITH NARRABRI SHIRE COUNCIL AND IPWEA (NSW) ON RIVER ROAD LAST NOVEMBER.

B

lack soil trials were constructed at River Road at Narrabri on 1 and 2 November 2018. These trials are a joint initiative between Narrabri Shire Council, IPWEA (NSW) and AustStab. They follow previous black soil trials which were constructed at Goondiwindi in October 2016.

1. SCOPE The purpose of these trials is to develop procedures and methods for stabilising unsealed black soil roads with low traffic volumes, and provide an all-weather surface with reduced maintenance requirements.

AustStab and council’s responsibilities for this trial were shared as follows: AustStab contractors’ responsibilities: • Establishment • Supply and spreading of quicklime as above • Slaking • Stabilising as above (two passes) • Construction testing (spread rate, depth of mixing, field moisture) • Post construction testing (relative compaction, UCS, CBR, two of each per section) • Project management.

Council responsibilities: • Traffic control • Water cart • Rollers/compaction • Grader/trimming of final surface profile.

2. LOCATION The trial was carried out on River Road located approximately 35 kilometres west of Narrabri. The actual site of the works is on River Road, 2 kilometres south

of the Kamiloroi Highway. The site is approximately halfway between Narrabri and Wee Waa. This road is an access road for several properties and is estimated to carry fewer than 50 vehicles per day. The section of this road selected for the trial has been formed from in-situ highly plastic black soil located with no imported local gravel overlay.

3. TRIAL DESCRIPTION The site sketch below provides details of the trial sections including depth of stabilisation and quicklime percentages. Lot 1 has no lime but has been included as a control section. This lot was simply mixed and compacted with added moisture to assist compaction.

TRIAL LAYOUT SKETCH The trial details were developed in consultation with Narrabri Shire Council after a site investigation and laboratory testing, including lime demand testing, Atterberg Limits, UCS and CBRs. The investigation testing was carried out with both hydrated lime and a 50/50 blend of slag and lime.

The hydrated lime was found to be the most effective binder. A summary of the results is as below: • The average lime demand for the full soil sample is 3.4 per cent • Average CBR (10-day soak) for 2 per cent hydrated lime is 18 per cent

• Average CBR (10-day soak) for 4 per cent hydrated lime is 52 per cent.

The natural material was found to have a CBR of 2.5 per cent with a plasticity index range of 36 to 44.

CONSTRUCTION TESTING As with the initial investigation, CBR results for the unstabilised control section are low at 3 per cent and 4 per cent.

Variable CBRs were achieved for both the 3 per cent and 4 per cent binder sections with results in the range of 45 per cent to 140 per cent. These results are generally much higher than those achieved for the initial site investigation laboratory test program, with no discernable difference between the results for the sections with 3 per cent binder compared to 4 per cent binder.

The range of UCS results for both sevenday accelerated and 28-day ambient tests are similar and range from 0.3 megapascals to 1.2 megapascals.

4. FUTURE MONITORING To assess the performance of these trials over time, regular monitoring will be carried out. This will be predominantly visual monitoring initially at six-month intervals for the first year and then at 12-month intervals.

Any maintenance activities will also be documented to provide long-term performance data on the effectiveness of the lime stabilisation.

LOT 1

LOT 2

LOT 3

LOT 4

LOT 5

LOT 6

LOT 7

0%, 200mm

3%, 200mm

4%, 200mm

3%, 300mm

4%, 300mm

3%, 150mm

4%, 150mm

(control)

9.6kg/m2

12.8kg/m2

14.4kg/m2

19.2kg/m2

7.2kg/m2

9.6kg/m2

CH 00

CH 100

CH 200

CH 300

CH 400

CH 500

CH 600

CH 700

Note: Lime percentages are for quicklime

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6m

45

PRECAST’S ROLE IN

AWARD-WINNING INFRASTRUCTURE NATIONAL PRECAST PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF HOW PRECAST IS CONTRIBUTING TO AUSTRALIA’S INFRASTRUCTURE SUCCESS AND THE AWARD-WINNING PROJECTS LEADING THE WAY.

W

ith Australian cities making a substantial commitment to statement infrastructure, interest in the nation’s civic structures is dramatically increasing. Infrastructure becomes iconic by striking a permanent pose and Australian precast concrete is doing just that with award-winning projects on national and worldwide scales.

2018 was an impressive year for National Precast’s members, with a range of member projects making headlines for their feats. From the Australian Institute of Architect’s Architecture Awards to internationally renowned The Stadium Business Awards in London, Australian precast concrete is stepping into the spotlight and stealing the show.

Optus Stadium’s wall facade features 4000 square metres of precast panels.

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OPTUS STADIUM In one of many accolades for this remarkable project, Optus Stadium was recognised as a world-class venue at The Stadium Business Awards in London, winning the Project of the Year award for 2018. The project also earned the highest honour at the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2018 WA Architecture Awards, winning the prestigious George Temple Poole Award. The stadium also received three named awards at the event: the Jeffrey Howlett Award for Public Architecture, the Wallace Greenham Award for Sustainable Architecture and the Mondoluce Lighting Award and the Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture.

Designed by Hassell, Cox and HKS, the stadium’s architectural wall façade features

4000 square metres of precast panels manufactured by Western Australia-based precaster Delta Corporation. Some panels have a smooth surface, some have exposed aggregate and some have images etched into selected segments and sandblasted at varied depths. Integral colouring using pigments produced earthy tones and a saw tooth profile was achieved using custom moulds.

Indigenous artwork was etched into the surface of the precast panels with graphic concrete. Delta worked in collaboration with National Precast Industry Partner and graphic concrete specialist, ramsetreid, to manufacture a surface relief that showcases the Nyoongar Aboriginal language and stories.

At the centre of the sporting action are

Stage 2 of the Bendigo Hospital project included construction of a multi-level car park and conference centre, both using precast elements.

more than 3500 units of prestressed precast seating plats manufactured by Delta and fellow Western Australia-based member, PERMAcast. All structural elements were manufactured to an immaculate Class 2 off-form finish.

BENDIGO HOSPITAL At $630 million, Bendigo Hospital is Victoria’s largest regional hospital. Designed

by Bates Smart and Silver Thomas Hanley, the hospital fuses Bendigo’s natural environment and vernacular architecture with a holistic approach to healthcare. It is morphologically divided into sections, including healthcare facilities, retail facilities, a childcare centre and a hotel.

Bendigo Hospital won the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture at the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2018 National Architecture Awards. Stage 2 of the project included the construction of a multi-level car park and a conference centre, which comprise precast floor planks, beams, columns, stairs and wall panels manufactured by Melbourne-based National Precast member Hollow Core Concrete.

Speed of construction, high quality architectural finishes, a long span design and a Class-2-to-3 fire rating were among the design requirements. Hollowcore floor planks achieved the long spans, while solid floor planks were suitable for the complex

Precast floors, plans, beams, columns, stairs and wall panels were manufactured for the Bendigo project.

geometry. Coloured concrete with a specially designed concrete mix was used for the wall panels and two types of surface finishes were applied to the face of the wall panels. Some have an acid washed surface finish, while others have been sandblasted.

CADOGAN SONG SCHOOL Designed by Palassis Architects, the Cadogan Song School at St George’s Cathedral in Perth was celebrated for its outstanding contribution to the quality of concrete in Australia at the Concrete Institute of Australia’s 2017 Awards for Excellence. The project won the prestigious Kevin Kavanagh Trophy – the highest honour awarded to a concrete project. It was also awarded the 2017 WA

State Award of Excellence in the category of Commercial Buildings.

The Cadogan Song School continued to soar in 2018. The project was awarded the National Award for Heritage at the Institute of Architects’ National Architecture Awards 2018. At the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2018 WA Architecture Awards, the project received the Margaret Pitt Morison Award for Heritage and the Julius Elischer Award for Interior Architecture. It also earned an award in the Public Architecture category and a commendation in the Mondoluce Lighting award category.

South Australia-based National Precast member SA Precast (Specialty Architectural Precast) manufactured all precast concrete roadsonline.com.au

47

Precast features of the Cadogan Song School include curved beams, spires and lattice feature wall panels.

elements for the project. These included curved beams, spires, lattice feature wall panels, the first storey supporting columns for the second storey shells and the shells for the second storey that form the colonnade. The elements were manufactured with a white cement and featured a lightly textured off-form finish.

WYNYARD WALK A major pedestrian walkway now connects Sydney’s Wynyard Station to the bustling Barangaroo waterfront precinct and the CBD. Having won the State Award for Infrastructure Projects at the Concrete

Institute of Australia’s 2017 Awards for Excellence and the Public Design Award at the 2018 Australian Interior Design Awards, the Wynyard Walk is a stunning example of precast concrete in Australian infrastructure.

National Precast member Asurco Contracting manufactured precast glass reinforced concrete panels for the walls and ceiling of the tunnel at its South Australian factory. This process involved the framing, mould-making, manufacture, installation and coating of the elements.

Barangaroo’s waterfront development attracts up to 33,000 visitors and host approximately 23,000 office workers daily. The new 180-metre walkway allows pedestrians to travel from the station to the waterfront in just six minutes, making it a vital part of the state government’s commitment to meet Sydney’s transport needs.

SYDNEY SKYTRAIN With an aesthetic appeal that sets a new infrastructure benchmark, the Sydney Skytrain is the most visible legacy of the Sydney Metro Northwest project – Australia’s first fully automated metro rail system.

Delivered by Salini Impregilo, the Sydney Metro Northwest project won the top prize for the railway sector at

Wynyard Walk won the Public Design Award at the 2018 Australian Interior Design Awards.

the 2018 Global Best Project Awards by US construction magazine Engineering News-Record. The project was selected by a jury for its excellence in construction, attention to safety and diversity and community benefits.

Hanson Precast, one of National Precast’s New South Wales members, manufactured 2300 precast concrete parapets and 56 platform units for Stage 1 of the project – the Sydney Skytrain. The precaster also produced the Skytrain’s in-situ concrete.

Part of the company’s factory was used to produce 1200 precast concrete viaduct segments.

Hanson Precast manufactured 2300 precast concrete parapets for the Sydney Skytrain.

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SMALL CULVERT ALIGNS WITH

CURRENT PRACTICE NATIONAL PRECAST CEO SARAH BACHMANN EXPLAINS WHAT NEW AMENDMENTS TO THE AUSTRALIAN STANDARD FOR PRECAST REINFORCED CONCRETE BOX CULVERTS MEAN AND THE BENEFITS THEY BRING.

A

S 1597.1-2010 Precast reinforced concrete box culverts specifies minimum requirements for the design, testing, manufacture and installation of precast reinforced concrete rectangular box culverts that span up to 1200 millimetres.

According to National Precast Chief Executive Officer Sarah Bachmann, a recent amendment to the standard, which increases the number of nominal size classes, has several benefits.

“This amendment brings the standard in line with Australia’s current manufacturing and installation practices, as well as current governing design codes. It will also bring efficiencies to civil projects,” Ms. Bachmann explains.

Published by Standards Australia in August 2018, the amendment to the standard adds eight new nominal size classes in Table 2.5. The removal of note

2 beneath the table, “Other size culverts may be made to a specific order”, was a key part of the amendment.

Precast manufacturers that choose to align their product range to the new sizes can manufacture stock to provide customers with ready-made products. As designers and civil contractors become familiar with the expanded range of sizes, they can have more confidence that small box culverts will be readily available as “off the shelf” items.

“More nominal sizes should increase the likelihood of designers specifying one of the standard sizes, rather than custommade sizes,” Ms. Bachmann says.

“Being available at short notice will shorten lead times, allow projects to get started sooner and will reduce the overall timeframe of projects. This is a change that will benefit manufacturers, contractors and asset owners.”

About Australian Standards While on their own, compliance to Australian Standards is voluntary, government regulators and public health authorities often turn to standards in their regulation to provide a baseline level of safety requirements for houses, buildings, infrastructure and machinery. In the construction sector, compliance with Australian Standards helps to codify best practices, methods and technical requirements to create safe and sustainable infrastructure.

It is vital that all asset owners, both in the private and public realms, have confidence that the products they are buying and installing meet the requirements of the relevant Australian Standard. Australian Standards set out specifications and procedures that aim to ensure all suppliers are manufacturing, supplying and testing their products in accordance to strict guidelines.

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49

MINI BUT

MIGHTY

DESIGNED WITH CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT ITS CORE, CAT’S NEXT-GENERATION RANGE OF 1-TO-2-TONNE MINI HYDRAULIC EXCAVATORS BRINGS INDUSTRY-FIRST FEATURES THAT ARE TAILORED TO PROVIDE OPERATORS WITH OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE, VERSATILITY AND SAFETY ON ANY CONSTRUCTION SITE.

T

he ability to seamlessly manoeuvre a tight construction site while able to meet the heavy lifting requirements of the job at hand – figuratively and literally – is an admirable quality in any mobile plant. For Cat, its “next-generation” mini excavator range is poised to lift the standard of peak performance for small, but efficient machinery in the Australian construction sector.

Available to the market as of February this year, Caterpillar’s new hydraulic excavator line-up is designed with best performance,

versatility, safety, operator convenience and affordability in mind.

Coming in the smallest possible packages for 1-to-2-tonne class machines, the model range – the 301.5, 301.6, 301.7 CR, 301.8 and 302 CR – has minimum operating weights ranging from 1575 to 2045 kilograms, with weights increasing to 1760 to 2200 kilograms, depending on machine configuration.

The range includes standard dig depths of between 2340 millimetres to 2370 millimetres depending on the model, as

well as an available long stick increase depth of 2540 or 2570 millimetres.

With the new models also utilising the Cat designed and built C1.1 engine – a three-cylinder diesel rated at 14.3 kilowatts and 16.1 gross kilowatts meeting Tier 4 Final/Stage emissions regulations – they provide operators with significant increases in engine power and performance over previous models.

Not only does the Cat C1.1 engine enhance fuel efficiency through engine idle control and automatic shutdown systems for the

The new mini excavator range includes standard dig depths of between 2340 millimetres to 2370 millimetres, depending on the model.

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

mini excavators, but it delivers a consistent performance through a wide speed range – embodying the phrase “small but mighty”.

While the standard technical capabilities of the new Cat mini excavator range prove it to be a powerhouse addition to the Australian and New Zealand construction markets, it is the new premium and industry-first features of the machines that give them a major point of difference.

POWER ON DEMAND The next-generation mini excavators use a load-sensing hydraulic system with an electronically controlled variable piston pump capable of oil flows up to 66 litres per minute. To aid in machine efficiency and fuel savings, the oil flow rates, coupled with high main-relief pressures, arms the new models with the capacity to generate high digging and lifting forces.

The hydraulic system gives the range the ability to manage a variety of power attachments. Additionally, the LCD monitor can be used to set to fine, normal and aggressive modes, giving operators the ability to match machine responsiveness with job requirements.

The Cat coupler design also allows operators to reverse attachments for front shovel operation, a capability that lends an extra measure of precision when digging around utilities.

The dozer blade on the machines features ample travel, above and below ground level, has a float function and is designed to allow “dig-to-blade” operation for more efficient handling of loose materials. This, combined with the stick-steer function on the machines – what Cat calls “a new way to move” – allows the machines to handle backfilling and grading tasks easily.

The stick-steer system is exclusive for the next-generation mini excavator models. It allows the operator to control tracks using the left-hand joystick control at the touch of a button, providing the benefit of less effort and improved control. Complementing the stick-steer functionality is an automatic two-speed travel that speeds up machine positioning and control.

TAILORED FOR OPERATOR COMFORT AND EFFICIENCY The premium technical features of the new Cat mini excavator range are complemented by their tailored, engineered approach to suit the varying

requirements of operators across the wider construction sector.

Model design emphasises comfort, convenience and operator safety, particularly through the cab – standard on the 301.6 and optional on the 301.8 and 302 CR. The cab, with large glass areas on its sides and rear, including a skylight for visibility, is pressurised and sealed to minimise dust and noise intrusion and creates an in-cab cooling environment.

The operating consoles are designed to be intuitive, with a pattern changer that allows operators to select their preferred system between excavator and backhoe pattern. LCD monitors provide easy-to-read machine information and feature a jog dial for simple navigation and interaction with the monitor.

The machine security system is standard on all models and includes a key combined with operator pass code or an optional push-to-start button with a Bluetooth-enabled fob for automatic key recognition.

Likewise, the models come with various options for protective structures for operator and machine, including ROPS, TOPS and Top Guard – Level II – all designed to provide and facilitate a safe working environment on site.

The machine controls are protected via a hydraulic lock out with and boom lights help illuminate the work area. Optional LED lights on the front and rear of the machines also help to further enhance visibility.

The range is also engineered with easy serviceability and transportation.

Expandable undercarriages come standard on the machines, which enables them to be narrowed and allow the machines to enter work sites through restricted access points. The nextgeneration models also feature accessible maintenance points at ground level, while the battery is maintenance-free.

The tilt-up cab allows access to major hydraulic components by simply removing two retaining bolts and lifting the cab, which can be completed by a single person in under five minutes with the inclusion of a gas strut.

With myriad quality and capabilities that emphasise power and productivity, the next generation mini excavators bring the term “small but mighty” to the forefront for Australia’s construction sector.

The Cat next-generation mini excavator range The new model range allows customers greater choices for matching machine capabilities and features to applications. It includes: • 301.5 (1.5-ton class, standard tail swing, with canopy) • 301.6 (1.6-ton class, standard tail swing, with cab) • 301.7 CR (1.7-ton class, compact radius, with canopy) • 301.8 (1.8-ton class, standard tail swing, with either canopy or cab) • 302 CR (2.0-ton class, compact radius, with either canopy or cab).

The Cat mini excavators emphasise operator comfort, convenience and safety, with operating controls designed to be intuitive and easy to use.

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51

PUMP

POWER

THE COMBINATION OF ALLIGHTSYKES’ FG WILSON GENERATORS AND SULZER SUBMERSIBLE PUMPS IS GIVING CONTRACTORS A RELIABLE SOLUTION FOR EXTRACTING AND KEEPING WATER OUT OF CONSTRUCTION SITES.

The Sulzer submersible electric pumps can be used in a variety of industrial applications, including on tunnel sites.

D

espite December marking the first day of summer, Melbourne lived up to its reputation for turbulent and unpredictable weather last December when flash flooding hit the city hard in the middle of the month.

On 15 December, 41.2 millimetres of rain fell during the day, with 37.2 millimetres falling in the hour leading up to 5:45pm, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, causing a deluge of water to hit the city within a short space of time.

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

For construction sites, anticipating and preparing for such unexpected weather events is key to ensuring safety and productivity can be upheld and maintained on site, especially when such extreme weather can cause long and costly delays.

Garrin Angel, Product Life Cycle Manager for construction equipment distributor AllightSykes, says submersible pumps are a common solution to mitigate water ingress or remove pooling water from a road or civil construction site quickly. However,

he says having the right system can be the difference between an efficient and reliable solution and a costly and unreliable one.

“There’s a really strong market for submersible pumps in the Australian civil market, although there are always inferior copycat products out there,” Mr. Angel explains.

Similarly, not every site or contractor will use electric pumps, rather opting for a physical pump alternative without realising the benefits of a more reliable and

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

streamlined process. “Having a submersible system makes the whole process so much easier – just the sheer volume of water it can move in a short period of time compared to physical pumps makes it great equipment to have on site,” he adds.

AllightSykes offers its high-end suite of electric Sulzer submersible pumps, which range from pumping light- and mediumduty applications on residential and commercial properties, through to heavyduty jobs in larger industrial settings.

Gert Inja, Product Lifecycle Manager for AllightSykes’ pump equipment business, says the Sulzer submersible pumps operate off of a centrifugal system and can be submerged up to 20 metres deep in water and pump the water away to a different holding area or pond.

“The beauty of it being in the submerged water means the unit isn’t sitting on the side of a pond and posing a hazard. It’s compact and makes the optimum use of resources on site.”

An electric cable connects the unit to a standard generator, and operates with a stop/start function – a simple plug-andplay setup.

One of the range’s key benefits is its automatic monitoring system. If water or earth enters the unit while submerged, the system will automatically detect the invasive material and shut down.

Mr. Inja says this kind of setup is key for construction sites in the case of severe weather events or when water ingress occurs, which can bring work to halt in many cases. “For waste management on site, in particular, it’s critical, and it’s definitely a good option to have as a back-up in case of flooding or extreme weather.”

With the right Sulzer submersible pump selected, Mr. Inja estimates users can remove anywhere from 10 litres to 300 litres per second, which he says is an optimal solution for matching the variable volume to power requirements on construction projects.

Mr. Angel adds that the pump is built to European compliance standards for electronic hydraulic systems, making it an effective consumer of power and reducing its environmental footprint.

The range can run off a standard generator, but Mr. Angel says it is the

The Sulzer pumps come in a range of sizes and variations.

combination of the Sulzer electrical submersible pumps and AllightSykes’ FG Wilson range of generators that produce a standout and reliable solution for the construction market.

“There are lots of generators available in Australia. However, many are designed to be a cheap method of powering a farm shed.

For critical tasks where worker safety is involved, it is important to use the correct product,” he explains.

The FG Wilson generator range includes premium components, such as Perkins engines, which Mr. Angel says produce around 15 per cent improvements in

fuel consumption compared with other products.

“It also comes down to how the engine, engine alternator and control unit package are engineered and integrated with each other. We use a Leroy Somer alternator, which is a premium product that we know won’t fluctuate,” he says. “That means there’s going to be constant power, which is significant for companies that will be running generators for a certain length of time.”

Combined with the Sulzer range of electric pumps, Mr. Angel says the power and reliability of the FG Wilson generators makes the offerings from AllightSkyes a robust and reliable solution for water extraction and prevention on a variety of small and large worksites.

“The systems are used on a lot of tunnel projects in Australia to remove water from the site. There are a lot of construction jobs out there where major digging and excavation is involved and contractors are requiring and requesting these types of pumps,” he says.

“It really comes down to reliability and having better and hardwearing products in the field. We‘re able to optimise our generators for clients to run the with the Sulzer pumps as soon as they take the generator off the trailer – it goes straight to work.”

Combined with the FG Wilson range of generators, the Sulzer pumps prove a reliable asset on site.

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53

RAISING THE SAFETY

STANDARD

TO ENSURE IT PURCHASES RELIABLE, EFFICIENT AND MOST OF ALL SAFE CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT FOR ITS CREWS, ALEX FRASER PUTS PROSPECTIVE MACHINES THROUGH THEIR PACES. ITS LATEST ROLLER – THE DYNAPAC CC2200 DOUBLE DRUM ROLLER – HITS THE MARK.

Alex Fraser’s asphalt crews found the new Dynapac CC2200 Double Drum Roller’s operating console comfortable and easy to use.

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

L

ast September, around 100 tonnes of recycled glass and plastic were used in a road resurfacing project in Richmond, Melbourne.

The City of Yarra engaged recycled material producer and asphalt contractor Alex Fraser for a trial of its new asphalt product containing recycled glass, asphalt and highdensity polyethylene plastic – equivalent to 1500 wheelie bins or 7300 plastic two-litre bottles, and 55,000 glass bottles.

A major milestone for the road construction and maintenance community, the project exemplified just how much of a difference the industry could make to improving sustainable outcomes within Australia.

As a business leading the charge in sustainability, setting a benchmark for “green roads” and delivering valuable infrastructure work, it needs reliable, productive and safe mobile plant and construction equipment to ensure it continues to deliver benefits to its clients and communities across the country.

Seeking a new roller for one of its five asphalt crews in the broader Melbourne metropolitan area, Alex Fraser undertook a comprehensive trial phase to ensure it picked only the best equipment for the job.

Mike Stanes, Special Projects Manager at Alex Fraser, says the company looks for quality, reliability and value for money when purchasing new equipment. However, safety is paramount.

“Safety is our number one consideration – we put a lot of effort into making sure that any equipment we invest in meets our safety requirements,” he explains. “These requirements can be difficult to meet, which is something we really pride ourselves on at Alex Fraser. We trial every piece of mobile plant or equipment before we invest in it to identify the risks and ensure we’ll have appropriate controls in place to keep our people safe.”

When Alex Fraser started looking for a seven-tonne roller with particular ergonomically benefits to mitigate manual handling exposure, they turned to Dynapac to trial the new CC2200 Double Drum Roller.

Working with national equipment distributor CFC Distribution, Alex Fraser ran the new machine through a testing period with each of its five Victorian asphalt crews.

Each crew trialled the new roller for a couple of days over two months, submitting their feedback and reviews regarding the operator experience.

The asphalt crews found the Dynapac

Before purchasing its new Dynapac roller, Alex Fraser trialled the machine with its Victorian asphalt crews to ensure it met its high safety standards.

Roller operating console comfortable and easy to use, easy to move from one side to the other by way of a sliding seat and offered a good field of vision.

The tandem rollers are designed with operator comfort and efficiency in mind, including high-end compaction control and serviceability. The model also includes the suite of Dynapac-specific features, including its Dyn@Lyzer compaction control documentation system for soil and asphalt rollers, Dyn@Link tool for monitoring and controlling fleets and Eco Mode to improve fuel savings and environmental outcomes on the machine.

“Our crews have been impressed by the roller’s workstation. The ergonomic design provides an easy and comfortable user experience. They have found it has a strong sense of stability and it’s easy to transfer from one side of the machine to the other,” Mr. Stanes explains.

During the testing phase, Alex Fraser’s physiotherapist assessed the machine, and suggested repositioning the handrails to

improve operator ingress and egress.

“We talked to Dynapac and CFC about our safety requirements and they were really responsive, customising the position of the handrails to meet our needs,” Mr. Stanes says.

He adds that this flexibility and knowing the distributor and manufacturer is on hand for anything specific to the brand were important factors in the Alex Fraser’s decision, and a key reason why it selected the Dynapac CC2200 Double Drum Roller.

“We’re always looking at ways to reduce exposure to risk and improve safety. We appreciate the responsive service, especially the willingness to customise the product to meet our safety needs.”

Having taken delivery of the roller this January, Alex Fraser is now putting the machine to work on a diverse range of projects underway in Melbourne.

The same model of Dynapac roller has recently been purchased by Alex Fraser’s sister company, Suncoast Asphalt, in Queensland – also part of the Hanson Group of Companies. roadsonline.com.au

55

A SAFE WAY

TO REVERSE

WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF THE WABCO TAILGUARD ELECTRONIC BRAKING SYSTEM TO ITS DYNAMIX CONCRETE MIXERS, GOUGH INDUSTRIAL SOLUTIONS AIMS TO HELP IMPROVE SAFETY FOR AUSTRALIA’S CONTRACTORS AND CONSTRUCTION SECTOR.

F

aced with catering to an industry full of contractors with continuously changing needs and requirements, Gough Industrial Solutions launched its new Dynamix Concrete Mixers to Australia.

Entering the market last year, the new Gough all-purpose agitators were introduced as a response to the efficiency and safety challenges contractors face daily.

With the machines quickly gaining

traction with local contractors, Gough is now doubling down on its commitment to safety in the civil construction sector by introducing WABCO TailGuard systems to the new concrete mixers.

As a WABCO distributor for the past eight years, Gough has extensive experience with the manufacturer’s braking systems. Following successful installations of the tailguard systems on rigid trucks for its clients in the transport

The new Dynamix Concrete Mixers, launched last year, can be fitted with the WABCO TailGuard to improve safety.

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ROADS FEBRUARY 2019

sector, the business decided to offer them on its agitator range.

The WABCO TailGuard is a rear blind spot detection system with active braking that automatically halts a vehicle when an obstacle is detected.

Nick Hope, Product Manager for Braking at Gough, says the business has been using the WABCO TailGuard in other areas of the business for nearly four years, the experiences of which helped inform its

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

decision to broaden its application.

“Because we already offer electronic braking systems (EBS) for trailers, we’re always looking for the best in safety and performance, so now we’re rolling that ideology through the different product ranges we have – we’re covering everything in transport, basically,” he says.

“Through the trials we’ve done and just by talking with customers, we’ve found the systems to be a great add-on for their fleets and EBS systems.”

The system uses two sensors to detect obstacles to the rear of the vehicle – an agitator in this instance – and indicates to the driver how close they are to an obstacle, while also preventing them from reversing at more than nine kilometres per hour by monitoring the wheel speed.

“It’s monitoring the rear for the driver, who will have a control unit mounted in the cab, showing the distance between any detected objects and the back of the vehicle,” Mr. Hope explains.

Much like reversing displays in cars, the WABCO TailGuard system will show the rear of the vehicle to the driver with a trafficlight-inspired colour theme that provides real-time details on where an object is in relation to the rear of the vehicle.

“As the agitator driver is backing up to a pump or where he’s going to be filling, the system is basically watching the surrounds and back of the vehicle for him,” he says. As soon as the vehicle goes over the coloured lines, the brakes automatically apply.

While the application of the WABCO TailGuards on the Dynamix range is new to the local sector, Mr. Hope explains that the feedback from users across the transport sector makes it a perfect fit for its civil construction machinery.

The business has worked with customers in the grain sector, for instance, and installed the sensor’s as a 0-type so that the angles it detects are at 0 degrees for their particular applications, which involve reversing into loading areas with multiple pillars.

“We’ve had safety-conscious companies like Veolia, Metro Trains and V/Line using it on their all their equipment that has job conditions where reversing is required. By introducing this system on Veolia’s fleet, we’ve eradicated their incidents, so it’s been a huge achievement for them,” Mr. Hope explains.

The system uses two sensors at the rear of the vehicle and indicates to the driver how close they are to an obstacle.

“BECAUSE WE ALREADY OFFER ELECTRONIC BRAKING SYSTEMS (EBS) FOR TRAILERS, WE’RE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR THE BEST IN SAFETY AND PERFORMANCE, SO NOW WE’RE ROLLING THAT IDEOLOGY THROUGH THE DIFFERENT PRODUCT RANGES WE HAVE – WE’RE COVERING EVERYTHING IN TRANSPORT, BASICALLY.” Because the concreting industry has to have access to construction sites with major variables and risks, including housing estates and jobs in the inner cities, Gough aims to make sure the vehicles it offers are safe for those different environments.

“The agitators need to be safe for the driver but also the pumping staff and those working around the vehicle, so that’s a key reason why we went down this road to fit the agitators with the WABCO technology,” Mr. Hope explains.

Gough has also trialled the use of technology on other civil construction equipment, including boom lifts. “We’ve applied the same sensors and system to a boom lift so that when it reaches up to an awning, for instance, it will alert the operator if it gets too close. It actually stops the hydraulics from making the boom go any further,” he adds.

While the act of installing the WABCO TailGuard systems onto the vehicles and agitators is a straightforward process, Mr. Hope says there is a training aspect involved that needs to be taken into account.

“We make sure we go out there and help

train operators to ensure they’re aware of how the system works. Fleet managers are always really good – they’ll explain how it works to all the new drivers.

From us working with them and learning effectively about the system from the get-go, it can help reduce vehicle damages dramatically,” he says.

When working with Metro Trains, for instance, Gough conducted the handover of the vehicle with the organisation’s safety officer and drivers present to demonstrate the vehicle reversing.

“We’ll put an object in the way and show how the truck will brake and that’s how we’ve been able to prove the system.”

With the addition of WABCO TailGuards to Gough’s Dynamix range of agitators, the business is looking to expand its service offerings further as new technologies enter the Australian market.

“We’re looking at the telematics side of systems for trailers, so that it picks up if there’s any potential roll or speed and can alert headquarters,” Mr. Hope says.

“We’re just waiting for the first set of units to come in, then we’ll set that up with a fleet and trial it for market.” roadsonline.com.au

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HOW EFFECTIVE ARE YOUR FIRE

SUPPRESSANT SYSTEMS? CRANE ACCIDENTS, ESPECIALLY CRANE FIRES CAN BE MAKING NEWS HEADLINES ALMOST IMMEDIATELY IN TODAY’S DIGITAL AGE. THERE IS A PERCEPTION THAT ONCE THESE FIRES GET STARTED NOTHING CAN BE DONE TO STOP THEM. FIRESTORM’S KIERAN MCHATTON EXPLAINS THIS ISN’T THE CASE.

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n many cases, the risks and related control measures around crane operations are well known, but in terms of risk assessment, a crane fire isn’t necessarily front of mind.

The “worst case scenario” happened in Sydney six years ago, when a fire started on the machine deck of a diesel/ hydraulic luffing crane, it caused the luff rope to fail, allowing the jib to collapse onto the worksite below. Fortunately, there were no injuries as the worksite had been evacuated, and the jib fell into the evacuated worksite rather than a populated area. Safety reports at the time confirmed that the same potential for fire applied to electric tower cranes.

Providing protection against fire on mobile and transportable equipment is governed by Australian Standard (AS) 5062 -2016. The objective of the standard is to formalise current good practice in reducing the incidence and severity of fires, and to provide a consistent approach to fire risk reduction in order to safeguard life, property and the environment against fires associated with mobile and transportable equipment.

Firestorm Fire Protection designs, installs and services fire suppression systems throughout Australia.

The Firestorm Fire Protection Group comprises an integrated network of fire suppression solutions for a wide range of applications including cranes, mining and heavy industry, bus, construction, recycling, trucks, tunnelling and forestry sectors.

Firestorm has been distributing the Swedish manufactured Fogmaker Water Mist Fire Protection System since 2010.

According to Kieran McHatton, General Manager of Fogmaker Australia, the system 58

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The system has been fitted to a number of different cranes around Australia, including large harbour cranes.

“COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL FOAM SYSTEMS WE ARE A MORE COMPACT UNIT AND USE A 10TH OF THE AGENT TO PROVIDE THE SAME OR BETTER OUTCOMES.” is AS 5062-2016 approved and industry response to the system was quick and positive. “In the first 12 months of taking on the product, we installed 600 systems,” he said. “We started in mining, and then moved to the public transport sector.

Today, we have installed 9000 systems across Australia and NZ and 180,000 systems internationally.”

Mr. McHatton says that AS 5062-2016 is a risk-based methodology and has certain fire-testing criteria. Not all systems comply to the standard.

“There are two ways to look at the standard. First, suppressant manufacturers have to put their systems through AS5062 to get approval and compliance. Secondly, the end user needs to follow the AS5062 risk based methodology to be part of

that approval process,” he says. “So, the user owns the risk assessment and determines whether a fire system goes on the machines or not. There is a chain of responsibility on the machine owner, and they should be ensuring that a fire suppressant system is fit for purpose prior to purchase.”

The Fogmaker system is a piston accumulator system using high-pressure water mist.

“Compared to conventional foam systems we are a more compact unit and use a 10th of the agent to provide the same or better outcomes. Essentially, we fill the engine compartment with water mist and one litre of water creates 1700 litres of steam,” he explains. “Steam is an inert gas, and that extinguishes the

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

Kieran McHatton.

fire. The evaporation process turns the water mist into steam and that’s the cooling effect. If there’s a fire in the engine compartment, we cool it from 850 degrees Celsius down to 75 degrees Celsius within 15 seconds. That’s a drop in temperature of over 700 degrees Celsius within 15 seconds – nothing cools like water mist.”

The system automatically detects a fire, so if the temperature in the engine compartment reaches 180 degrees Celsius, the system will automatically function.

There’s no need for electrical power as the system functions without it. The Fogmaker system also provides pressure switches on the cylinders so it can advise the operator on a fault or an alarm condition.

It can also provide ancillary controls which include shutting the engine down and providing voice announcements to instruct the operator in case of an evacuation.

The Fogmaker system has been fitted to a number of frannas and large harbour cranes. All the new Liebherr harbour cranes for Qube Ports in Australia come with the Fogmaker system fitted as standard. Liebherr runs all the cabling and Fogmaker manages the final fit at the assembly stage.

“First, we fill our detection tube with a liquid so we don’t get any leaks. This has been proved in the bus industry where we’ve installed more than 8000 systems.

There’s no doubt that the system is robust and we don’t get faults. If it is activated, it’s because there’s been a thermal incident,” Mr. McHatton says.

“Secondly, our system is compact and because it’s a piston accumulator it can be installed at any angle. Thirdly, because

The Fogmaker system in action.

“TIER 4 ENGINES NOW FEATURE HIGHER PRESSURES AND ARE RUNNING HOTTER TO REDUCE EMISSIONS.”

there are so many different cylinder sizes in the range, we can fit our system to the smallest and largest crane. Construction equipment is getting more compact and the larger conventional systems no longer fit on these machines, that’s why there’s such a big move to Fogmaker,” he adds.

Mr. McHatton makes an interesting observation about environmental legislation and engine emissions. “Tier four engines now feature higher pressures and are running hotter to reduce emissions.

They also feature diesel particulate filters, which add more heat to the engine compartment. More heat equals more pressure, which equals more fire risk,” he says. “Previously, engines featured low-pressure diesel and it’s hard to light a pool of diesel, but today’s engines atomise diesel so finely we can ignite diesel at less than 100 degrees Celsius. So there’s a lot more chance of fires starting and I don’t think anyone can really say ‘my machine doesn’t need a fire suppression system’.” roadsonline.com.au

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RAPID RESPONSE FOR

SAFETY RENTALS ROAD SAFETY RENTALS, A DIVISION OF SAFEROADS, IS HELPING VICTORIAN CONTRACTORS AVOID COSTLY DELAYS BY PROVIDING RAPID DEPLOYMENTS OF SAFETY EQUIPMENT.

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n a perfect world, when a contractor begins construction on roadworks, all of the information they will need is mapped out for them and they will have the right tools for the job.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Unforeseen complications can arise out of nowhere and drastically change the requirements of what is needed.

For example, if a tier three contractor is performing regular road maintenance and uncovers utilities that had not been originally accounted for on any plans, additional safety equipment may be required to ensure workers can continue.

In these scenarios, smaller contractors may not have the equipment readily available for them to react quickly and avoid further delays.

Victorian safety equipment rental company Road Safety Rentals, part of safety equipment manufacturer Saferoads, specialises in assisting companies in these situations and aims to provide contractors with rapid deployment of rental safety equipment.

Trent Loveless, General Manager of Road Safety Rentals, says because project managers are working in an environment with dynamic conditions and tight deadlines, there is a need for prompt problem solving.

“We’re a small, nimble business that can mobilise quickly and have barrier systems and other road safety equipment in place, often by the next morning,” he explains.

“It’s not uncommon for us to receive an email from a client with a request for barriers, variable message signs (VMS) or light towers to be on site as soon as possible. For example, if a contractor needs

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The company has added around two kilometres of T-LOK concrete barriers to its equipment range.

to occupy additional space or increase their protected work space by another 100 metres in length, we are often able to have everything set up by that day or the next.

“This is because our team members are well trained in road safety, so we know how to provide equipment in the most optimal

manner.”

With an acre and a half of space at the company’s Nar Nar Goon facility, Road Safety Rentals maintains a small, core team to be able to quickly respond to everchanging situations. The company is able to mobilise its equipment within 24-48

SAFETY

“WE’RE CONSTANTLY TALKING WITH OUR CLIENTS AND UNDERSTANDING THE SHIFTING PRIORITIES THEY HAVE, WHICH IS WHAT HELPS US STAY AWARE OF THE NEW TRENDS, NEW PRODUCT OPPORTUNITIES AND PRODUCT DESIGN REQUIREMENTS FOR AREAS WHERE NEW GROUND IS BEING BROKEN.” hours and have it deployed and set up in a compliant manner.

As part of the company’s development, Road Safety Rentals has increased the variety of equipment it can deploy. The company started with just a few kilometres of its Steel Ironman barrier, which is a freestanding, stackable hybrid barrier made out of concrete and steel.

It has evolved over eight years of research and development to meet the demands of the market and regulatory environment and has attained an Austroads Safety Barrier Acceptance Panel approval to 80 kilometres per hour.

The business operates a fleet of Ironman Hybrid barriers which see use throughout Victoria. The Hybrid barrier system has been transformed to weigh nearly one tonne as opposed to the original format which weighed less than 400 kilograms.

Due to the Hybrid’s ballasting system and strengthened bulkheads, the system is also able to provide more favourable deflections

The business has expanded its range, including key equipment for nightworks such as VMS signs.

for roadworks Road Safety Rental has been grown its fleet of equipment as well, adding around two kilometres of T-LOK concrete barriers for situations that require more heavyduty equipment, which can be combined with half a kilometre of anti-gawk screens.

As part of Saferoads, the company is also able to provide projects with myriad other products and services, including temporary barrier hire, VMS, solar-powered lighting and CCTV systems.

The latest upgrade to the company’s toolbox is the Omnistop Bollard Portable System. The system uses a heavy footing and base to be able to withstand a 2270-kilogram vehicle impacting the system at 60 kilometres an hour without affecting the flow of pedestrians, prams and wheelchairs.

The company is able to mobilise its equipment within 24-48 hours.

Mr. Loveless says this system will be an excellent tool for the equipment rental division of Saferoads, as it will allow the company to provide protection not only to roadside worksites, but also to event managers and venue operators.

Another factor behind the quick service deliveries, according to Mr. Loveless, is the fact the company actively connects with and observes the market and the changing needs of its clients.

“We’re constantly talking with our clients and understanding the shifting priorities they have, which is what helps us stay aware of the new trends, new product opportunities and product design requirements for areas where new ground is being broken,” he explains.

One of the trends that the company has identified is a significant increase in the amount of nightworks, which has led to Road Safety Rentals expanding its fleet of variable message signs and lighting towers.

Lighting is a safety requirement for nightworks, to keep workers safe alongside traffic and to ensure sites are illuminated to allow for digging, drilling and installation activities.

Mr. Loveless says public demand for faster project delivery times has led to an increase in demand for lighting towers and says many tier two and three contractors may not have full access to the appropriate lighting equipment.

“It’s an exciting time for the company as we move into 2019. With new products and capabilities, we are continually growing and helping contractors keep workers safe, as fast as possible.” roadsonline.com.au

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EVENTS DIARY

18TH ANNUAL PPP SUMMIT 11-12 FEBRUARY Sydney, Australia Informa’s 18th Annual Public Private Partnerships Summit 2018 will aim to unravel why some public private partnerships work and others don’t, exploring the secrets of building infrastructure better together. It will outline the recipe for success created by some projects that delivered on time and in budget. It will examine local and international visions for innovations in PPPs into the future – and outline the opportunities for the private sector at both a national and state level. It will promote a learning and sharing of experiences environment, examining the key threads in any PPP deal: finance, the bid process, project management, and the legal and risk management aspects throughout the duration of a project. www.informa.com.au/event/conference/ppp-summit

LIGHT RAIL 2019 4-5 MARCH Melbourne, Australia Across Australasia, light rail is reshaping the transport landscape and transforming the way we travel by offering smart solutions and completing multimodal connections. Light rail provides sustainable, smart and safe solutions to the congestion and capacity challenges currently faced by our cities and regions.

Light Rail 2019, with a new networking dinner for 2019, will bring together operators, manufacturers, contractors and industry and government stakeholders of every level across the light rail sector to hear cutting-edge case studies, project updates and learn from successful projects in Australasia and the world. www.informa.com.au/event/conference/light-rail

4TH INTERNATIONAL STREET LIGHTING + SMART CONTROLS CONFERENCE 2019 2-4 APRIL Sydney, Australia Showcasing Australia and New Zealand’s advances in street lighting deployments, the 4th International Street Lighting + Smart Controls Conference will address the next steps needed to accelerate the roll-out of large-scale street lighting and smart controls. LED street lighting and integrated smart controls are the DNA and backbone infrastructure that will make smart and connected cities become a reality. www.streetlightingconference.com.au

18TH AAPA INTERNATIONAL FLEXIBLE PAVEMENTS CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 18-21 AUGUST Sydney, Australia Under the title ‘Our Everlasting Roads – Enabling Future Mobility’, the 18th Australian Asphalt Pavement Association International Flexible Pavements Conference & Exhibition refers to the changing demands that society and transportation technology place on the long-term investment that is road infrastructure. It also refers to our increasing technical ability to build perpetual pavements, roads that will last an indefinite amount of time, while only requiring regular surface maintenance. The event will bring together the leaders and key industry stakeholders of the flexible pavements industry under one roof to discuss the future of the sector. www.aapa.asn.au

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