Roads & Infrastructure June 2021

JUNE 2021

EQUIPMENT SPOTLIGHT

Featuring the latest in infrastructure equipment Official media partners of

RESERVOIR STATION A look at the project’s sustainability wins ROADS REVIEW Industry experts on construction innovations

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J6663

JUNE 2021 CONTENTS

& INFRASTRUCTURE

Since completion last year, the Reservoir Metro Station has won multiple accolades.

Read the project report on page 12.

PROJECT REPORT

NATIONAL PRECAST

AfPA

ROADS REVIEW

12 Reservoir Station

16 C utting bitumen cutters: AfPA’s sustainable strategy 18 A n introduction to AfPA’s new executive director of QLD and NT 20 AfPA member profile

ISCA

22 ISCA Connect conference hybrid event 2021 Hastings Deering details features of Cat utility roller on page 28.

24 Precaster develops EPD for concrete pipes

26 Industry leaders review innovative infrastructure products changing construction

INFRASTRUCTURE EQUIPMENT FEATURE 28 Cat compacting prices

30 Premier Cranes #TeamLifting industry standards

32 Wirtgen a winner for road rehabilitation and recycling 34 The Hydradig: Widening horizons for wheeled excavators 36 Sensors and safety on the road 37 User friendliness paramount for Dynapac City Pavers

ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

38 ResourceCo: Ready to support government’s green initiatives

INFRASTRUCTURE IN FOCUS

40 Precise planning for NVC Precast passage

ASPHALT IN ACTION

42 Safe inline blending of cutters with SAMI

SAFETY

44 Providing indigenous pathways

EVENTS

46 The Victorian Transport Infrastructure Conference

REGULARS 4 Editor’s note 6 News roadsonline.com.au

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PUBLISHER Christine Clancy christine.clancy@primecreative.com.au MANAGING EDITOR Sarah Baker sarah.baker@primecreative.com.au

ROAD TO CIRCULAR ECONOMY AS WE WERE WRAPPING UP this edition of Roads & Infrastructure, the federal budget 2021-22 was released, with promises to inject an additional $15.2 billion into the roads and infrastructure development projects nationally over the next 10 years as part of an overall $110 billion spend across the same period.

The funding for road, rail and freight upgrade projects are outlined by the Prime Minister as Australia’s plan for job recovery in the post COVID-19 job market, hoping to bring the unemployment rate closer to the 4.5 per cent goal set by the Treasurer from its 5.6 per cent in March.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the funding would create jobs now and “set Australia up for the future.”

As always, Roads & Infrastructure will be following the progress of these projects, which among others include spending $2.03 billion on the Great Western Highway in New South Wales, a $2 billion funding for a new Intermodal Terminal in Melbourne and a 2.6 billion allocation for the North-South Corridor in South Australia.

For this edition, we have covered the success of the Reservoir metro station in Melbourne, a project that has won numerous accolades since completion a year ago. Most recently, the project was announced winner of the first Green Building Council of Australia five-star rating. The station has also received the ‘Leading’ rating, the highest rating score by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia.

At our Roads Review column, we asked industry experts how the construction industry was changing with innovations in the infrastructure products. We received some interesting responses. Downer’s Reconophalt, an asphalt product containing recycled asphalt, soft plastics, toner from used printer cartridges and crushed glass, is turning heads. Downer recently won the Community Waste Award and Waste Management Award at the annual 2021 WasteSorted Awards for its Reconophalt product, with Hume City Council in Melbourne being the first adopter.

Wrapping up this edition, we are optimistic about the possibilities that these material innovations bring to roads and infrastructure industry. The dial is shifting and the new direction is, without doubt, headed towards a circular economy.

EDITOR Tara Hamid tara.hamid@primecreative.com.au JOURNALIST Shanna Wong shanna.wong@primecreative.com.au DESIGN PRODUCTION MANAGER Michelle Weston michelle.weston@primecreative.com.au ART DIRECTOR Blake Storey DESIGN Kerry Pert, Madeline McCarty BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Brad Marshall brad.marshall@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

Tara Hamid Editor, Roads & Infrastructure Magazine

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ROADS JUNE 2021

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

The 2021-22 Budget promised an additional $15.2 billion in new commitments to infrastructure projects from the federal government, supporting an estimated 30,000 jobs across Australia. This, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack clarified, is in addition to the $110 billion ongoing federal commitment to the 10year infrastructure pipeline.

The Great Western Highway between Katoomba to Lithgow ($2 billion), Victoria’s Monash ($250 million) and Pakenham ($380 million) roads, and Queensland’s Bruce

Highway ($400 million) are just some of the stretches of road that’ll receive upgrades.

So will the Great Eastern Highway in Western Australia ($200 million), the North-South Corridor from Darlington to the Anzac Highway in South Australia ($2.6 billion), the Midland Highway in Tasmania ($113.4 million) and the Northern Territory National Highway ($150 million).

The Budget also includes $1 billion to extend the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program to 2022–23 — which, as its name suggests, is all about supporting local councils to deliver local road and community infrastructure

Image credit: Level Crossing Removal Project

FEDERAL BUDGET GIVES $15.2B BOOST TO ROADS, RAIL AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

projects — as well as another $1 billion to continue the Road Safety Program into the same year.

NSW PROPOSAL MADE FOR AUSTRALIA’S LONGEST TUNNEL investigations into what would be Australia’s longest connected tunnel beginning. NSW

Image credit: The NSW Government

An 11-kilometre tunnel between Katoomba and Lithgow has been proposed, with

Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole said the proposal would link two planned tunnels at Blackheath and Mount Victoria. “This would be a history-making project, delivering Australia’s longest road tunnel and allow motorists to avoid all the current pinch points from Blackheath,” Toole said. Construction on the highway upgrade is expected to start in 2022, with the full upgrade set to be completed by 2032.

FIRST LOOK AT MELBOURNE AIRPORT RAIL RELEASED FOR THE PUBLIC

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ROADS JUNE 2021

Melbourne Airport Rail concept.

Image credit: Melbourne Air Rail.

Concept images of the new Melbourne Airport rail bridge have been released with the bridge spanning 550 metres across the Maribynong River. The bridge is expected to be the second highest bridge in Melbourne and will provide access to the Victorian public transport network while creating a 30-minute direct route from the CBD to Melbourne Airport with the rail station estimated to be a tenminute journey from Melbourne Airport.

Consultation with councils, communities, government agencies, Heritage Victoria and contractors is underway.

Construction will begin in 2022 with a target opening date of 2029.

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NEWS

METRONET’S $1.86B FORRESTFIELD-AIRPORT LINK CONNECTS TO WA RAIL NETWORK released. Part of the project will see three train lines running parallel to each other for the first time on Perth’s Rail network: The Midland Line, the Airport Line and the Morley-Ellenbrook Line. The next stage of construction will see rail systems, signalling infrastructures and an overhead conductor rail which provides power to the trains.

Image credit: METRONET WA

Works on Western Australia’s METRONET are progressing with the Bayswater Junction becoming a connecting point between METRONET’s Forrestfield-Airport Link and the wider rail network. The METRONET project is WA’s largest public transport infrastructure project, according to WA Premier Mark McGowan, in a statement

NEWCASTLE, NSW AIRPORT INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT TO CREATE JOB BOOM The Newcastle Airport runway will be upgraded, creating thousands of local jobs.

The upgrades will also support new domestic and international travel

destinations for residents and businesses.

The runway will be widened with a $66 million investment to accommodate longer range domestic and international passenger services. Newcastle Airport

estimates these improvements could create around 4,400 full-time jobs, deliver an additional 850,000 visitors to the region and add $12.7 billion to the local economy.

MELBOURNE BOOM GATE REMOVAL AND NEW STATION ON TRACK The Manchester Road, Mooroolbark, Maroondah Highway and Lilydale level crossings will be removed months ahead of schedule, and two new train stations in the Melbourne suburbs of Mooroolbark

and Lilydale will open early. Both station buildings are also being prefabricated off site, reducing potentially more than three months of work to just two weeks. A new multi-deck complex will also be constructed

at the Mooroolbark station, doubling the capacity of car parking at the station to more than 900 spots. The Victorian Government is removing 75 level crossings by 2025, with 46 around the state already being removed.

The new bridge over the Fitzroy River has now officially opened. The $12.5 million structure at Riverslea is the third road upgrade delivered as part of the $367.2 million Rookwood Weir project. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said the bridge project will help support water security and the economy in central Queensland. The works also included the construction of 300 metres of new road connecting roads to the bridge, as well as passing bays at both ends. The Rookwood Weir project is jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments, which are each contributing $183.6 million.

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ROADS JUNE 2021

Image credit: Rockwood Weir, courtesy of Sunwater.

NEW BRIDGE AT ROCKWOOD WEIR, QLD COMPLETED

#TeamLifting

NEWS

PROGRESS ON $61.4M INTERSECTION REPLACEMENT IN SA Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, the removal of the dog-leg

intersection will benefit approximately 60, 000 motorists every day.

Proposed landscaping plan and artist impression.

Image credit: Government of South Australia.

Main replacement works on South Australia’s dog-leg intersection between Goodwood, Springbank and Daws road have been completed with the new fourway crossing now open to commuters.

Goodwood Road is a major north to south arterial route in south Adelaide with Springbank and Daws Road both forming important connecting routes to the eastern and western regions of Adelaide.

The $61.4 million project is jointly funded by the Federal and South Australian governments as part of the $4 billion Urban Congestion Fund aimed at reducing congestion in urban areas across Australia.

According to Corey Wingard, South

AUSTRALIAN-FIRST HEAVY VEHICLE TRAINING PROGRAM drivers to fill shortages in the transport sector. The six-week course will train up to 1,000 workers for the transport industry. Sue Ellery, Education and Training Minister said, “Central Regional TAFE has

partnered with Driver Risk Management to deliver the course and this is an excellent example of TAFE colleges and private training providers working together to address industry skills needs.”

Karisma Smith, a participant in the Heavy Vehicle Driving Operations skill set.

Image credit: Department of Training and Workforce Development.

The first twelve students have begun Western Australia’s $6.1 million Heavy Vehicle Driving Operations Skill Set course. This is the first course in Australia aimed at building a pipeline of skilled

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ROADS JUNE 2021

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RESERVOIR STATION: AT THE FOREFRONT OF SUSTAINABILITY

SINCE REACHING COMPLETION A YEAR AGO, MELBOURNE’S RESERVOIR STATION HAS RECEIVED NUMEROUS ACCOLADES, MOST RECENTLY AUSTRALIA’S FIRST FIVE-STAR GREEN RATING BY THE GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA. BUT FOR FIN ROBERTSON, SUSTAINABILITY MANAGER OF THE LEVEL CROSSING REMOVAL PROJECT OVERSEEING THE ROLLOUT OF 35 NEW STATIONS ACROSS THE NETWORK, THIS WIN IS JUST A PIECE IN THE OVERARCHING SUSTAINABILITY PUZZLE.

C

onsisting of six boom gates that impacted over 36, 000 vehicles a day, the High Street level crossing was a nightmare, especially for those completing their morning commute to work. These gates could remain down for up to 24 minutes during the peak twohour morning traffic with pedestrian and cycle links across the path both dangerous and disjointed.

The removal of the High Street level crossing and creation of the Reservoir Station marked the 31st project carried The Reservoir Station construction was completed in July 2020.

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ROADS JUNE 2021

out by the Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRP), a government initiative to remove 75 level crossings across metropolitan Melbourne by 2025.

The station was completed in July 2020, subsequently receiving Australia’s only five-star sustainability rating by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) in March 2021. The station also received the ‘Leading’ rating, the highest rating score by the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA).

Robertson, however, sees Reservoir

Station as more than single project triumph, but as a culmination - a program of sustainable design and construction.

MORE THAN A PROJECT “While Reservoir Station has achieved some really good things, I want to stress that it is a program of sustainability, not just a project,” says Robertson. “Our processes are very focused on taking the best thing we’ve done in a previous project and rolling it to all of our projects. I think that’s one of the most

PROJECT REPORT

valuable things a program represents: the opportunity to roll best practice into standard practice.”

Robertson believes that as a design professional, no one can make every infrastructure project iconic. For him, the focus for the Level Crossing project isn’t to make a few good designs but to lift the entire standard.

“When you do a flagship program, you’re showing people what’s possible and giving them a chance to go and re-interpret that.

It’s about making people think maybe, this can be the new standard,” says Robertson.

For the LXRP, sustainability had to be redefined. According to Robertson, with so many interpretations of the word, he and the team learned that they couldn’t be everything to everyone.

“It’s been a bit of an evolution. When we started, we started very heavily driven and informed by sustainability rating tools,” says Robertson. “But over time, as you mature as an organisation you start to realise that no one else will understand the importance, the strengths and the weaknesses better than you do.”

From there, LXRP started to build a approach based on their intuition and experience on where best to invest their time and what the risks and opportunities they rose to were.

“And while we continue to use these industry frameworks to validate our work and act as an assurance that we are on track, we’ve come to realise that the targeted areas that we’re trying to improve, well it’s not on the framework because we’re actually trying to go outside these expectations,” says Robertson.

He says that through a program approach to building infrastructure, LXRP has been able to build an continuous improvement loop, with the organisation even feeding back to, and improving, the industry frameworks themselves.

BUILDING RESERVOIR STATION “The most obvious challenge for the project was where the station and level crossing physically sat, in an urban context,” says Robertson. “The road structure itself was a mess, and here we were trying to build a rail line on top of the whole thing … but you’d never plan it that way, it was incremental development.”

With even the simplest of sustainable projects proving difficult, working on a project also impacted by urban

The station has received a five-star sustainability rating by the Green Building Council of Australia.

landscaping was just the cherry on top.

According to Robertson, working sustainable designs into already complex construction can run the risk of overloading the delivery team.

“This was a great example where looking at what we’ve done previously on projects was very valuable,” says Robertson. If we were scratching our heads about working with sustainable concrete, for example, we could look at previous level crossing projects and pinch recipes from there, which is far better than business as usual, but we’re not starting from scratch.”

This all feeds back into the advantages of viewing each completed project as an overarching program.

“Even if you’re using previous methods, it still takes work and intentional focus to make the ‘right’ thing happen but it’s definitely an opportunity. And that’s what we try do, borrow with pride; if it’s a good idea then, lets reuse it,” says Robertson.

Reservoir Station has a long list of sustainable achievements that has used these ‘good ideas’ as building blocks, from a 41 per cent reduction in electricity demand during peak times to a 92 per cent reduction in water compared against standard train station functioning.

The raw materials used to build Reservoir station were also considered with 33 per cent reduction in Portland Cement by replacing it with a range of substitutes such as fly ash and slag. All steel used in the construction of the station was

also responsibly sourced, as part of the project’s aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with materials production and sourcing.

“It’s focusing on our waste streams that we have and trying to come up with a state level strategy around creating a circular economy,” says Robertson on how best to respond to Australia growing waste problem. “And we use so much material in our programs, that it makes a lot of sense that we would be a great place to find uses for materials like these.”

Perhaps two lessor known highlights in the project are, however, the use of recycled glass fines in concrete and the use of remote energy water monitoring and metering, both first time innovations used in Australia.

GLASS FINES “Using recycled glass fines is, surprisingly, something that’s been possible in construction in Victoria for well over a decade,” says Robertson. “Most building sectors have their own standards and systems of regulation which really plays an important role in ensuring safety, but that means changes can be difficult.”

With the LXRP already focusing on material use, the target for them was to reduce the quantity of material used and amount of carbon emissions.

“Any opportunity to either reduce the materials in a volumetric sense or to substitute with materials of lower roadsonline.com.au

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PROJECT REPORT

environmental impact, through reusing or using recycled materials is fantastic,” says Robertson.

Glass fines are small glass particles that are considered an industrial waste product. Resulting from reprocessing glass, the fines pose a risk due to dust or air emissions that come from these fine particles.

The catalyst for reusing these glass fines in concrete, according to Robertson, came from their recent focus on materials efficiency and the recent release of the Victorian state government’s Recycle Victoria’s policy, which limits the ability to simply ship Australia’s waste away.

“The goal of the trial was to see if we could take this waste product and turn it back into a usable material,” says Robertson. “Glass and plastic materials are two that we’ve been able to apply in quite a few of our works.”

According to Robertson, the glass fine trials, which were conducted alongside Sustainability Victoria, successfully found that they could be utilised in shared user paths. This fitted in perfectly with Reservoir’s local community feedback

Concrete used for the station’s shared user paths contains glass fines.

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ROADS JUNE 2021

which asked for greater active transport routes.

While to outsiders, being able to implement a technology which has been do-able for the past ten years might not seems like a big feat, to Robertson, the ability to actually get trials underway is the milestone.

As he explains, getting trials up during the construction phase can be difficult when the beneficiaries are often the asset owners who would normally get involved further down the project lifecycle. The resultant split incentives, for the project contractors, designers and operators requires significant planning to find better ways of designing.

“This just means we have to find a way to organise trials in a way that it benefits both the designers and operators,” says Robertson. “And this is how we’re going to develop more technologies which can successfully be applied to other projects.”

ENERGY METERING The other greatest achievement proves a milestone in a different way.

“In an energy sense, a big part of our

program is not just identifying and implementing energy efficient initiatives.

We haven’t had a strong data set to work with to identify how our stations perform; so, one thing we’ve done is introduce a lot more metering and sub metering to allow us to do that investigation,” says Robertson.

As the old saying goes ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.’ With the importance of data ever increasing, being able to have a record of how the building is functioning helps with understanding operations, and thus how to fix it.

“We can theorise and do some basic levels of investigation, but nothing beats data to really understand and analyse performance,” says Robertson. “And this all links back into working on a program over a project. Being able to benchmark and compare against others means that there is a basis to go back and continue to improve systems.”

And while another train stations might eventually overtake the Reservoir Station as Australia’s most sustainable project, Robertson isn’t fussed. According to him, it’s all about a program of progress.

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CUTTING BITUMEN CUTTERS:

AFPA’S SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY

WITH THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES EVER GROWING, THE AFPA HAVE ENDORSED A FIVE-YEAR STRATEGY TO IMPROVE ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH AND SAFETY STANDARDS IN AUSTRALIA’S PAVING SECTOR THROUGH THE REDUCTION AND REMOVAL OF HYDROCARBON CUTTERS IN SPRAY SEALING OPERATIONS.

W

ith Australia producing an estimated 510.1 million tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per year, according to the federal government’s most recent quarterly report, it’s no surprise that there is an increasing push to adopt alternate paving technologies that have the potential to reduce environmental impacts.

The Australian flexible Pavement Association (AfPA) have continuously championed sustainability in the flexible paving industry, including solutions such as the use of reclaimed asphalt in new asphalt pavements and the use of crumb rubber and secondary materials as alternative pavement component.

Energy savings have also been targeted by the AfPA through recommending the reduction of asphalt manufacturing temperature. What these initiatives aim to achieve is to reduce the impact the flexible pavement industry has on the environment while shifting towards a circular economy.

To understand the strategy and the importance of reducing the use of bitumen cutters, it’s important to consider the two types of flexible roads used in Australia: sprayed bituminous seals and asphalt.

CURRENT FLEXIBLE ROADS According to Anna D’Angelo, AfPA director of technology and leadership, asphalt makes up less that 20 per cent of all pavements surfacing across Australian roads with spray sealing accounting for the remaining 80 per cent.

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ROADS JUNE 2021

says D’Angelo. “However, the practice of cutting back bitumen presents safety and environmental concerns.”

Anna D’Angelo, AfPA director of technology and leadership.

“Spray sealing is a low cost and sustainable surfacing option, considering Australia’s large size as a country and low traffic density,” says D’Angelo. “Approximately 340,000 kilometres of Australia’s surfaced road network have been sealed by this method with 10 to 15 per cent annually resealed.”

Unlike most international spray sealing practices, Australia still uses hydrocarbon cutters, such as kerosene, to cut back hot binders when constructing road spray seals.

These cutters are primarily used to change the viscosity of the bitumen temporarily to facilitate spraying and promote initial wetting and effective adhesion of the aggregate. These cutters evaporate into the environment in the months after spraying.

“When and how these cutters should be used is currently mandated in the contract specifications of the state road authorities,”

THE STRATEGY The strategy endorsed by the AfPA board focuses on reducing the use of cutters in spray sealing while investing in alternative products like bitumen emulsion or technologies which can allow the elimination of cutters.

This endorsement is part of the AfPA strategic objectives to support industry to continuously improve the health and safety of people, promote sustainability and introduce best practice and continual improvement.

“The strategy aligns with AfPA’s vision to support a healthy and safe industry while being adaptive to change,” says D’Angelo.

“Through introducing this strategy, we are doing both, and that’s really how this strategy came around. We wanted to improve working conditions, safety and sustainability.”

The problems posed by the use of kerosene-type hydrocarbons, according to D’Angelo, is related to the products’ low flash point: cutting back bitumen for sprayed sealing purposes requires managing the addition of this product into bulk bitumen at high temperatures. Due to these high temperatures, there are risks of fire or explosion due to hot volatile vapours.

The hot nature of the bitumen itself, poses the risk of burns to users if an accident should occur.

“And from a sustainable and environmental

Unlike most international spray sealing practices, Australia still uses hydrocarbon-based cutters.

point of view, the emissions released contribute to the generation of GHG and generate photochemical smog,” says D’Angelo.

ALTERNATE OPPORTUNITIES As part of research for sustainable alternatives to the use of cutback bitumen, D’Angelo organised a webinar in March 2021.

The webinar shared the practices and trends within the construction industry in other countries such as UK, France, Mexico and South Africa, that showed the commitment worldwide to reduce the carbon footprint.

Several sustainable technologies to improve spray seals construction practises were presented, such as the utilisation of synchronised spray/spreader machines that allow instantaneous wetting of the aggregate with the hot binder and the use of breaking agents when using bitumen emulsion to accelerate the curing.

Among the different solutions available, D’Angelo believes that bitumen emulsion represents a strong opportunity in the Australian market due to its potential to reduce both safety and environmental

hazards, through the reduction of energy consumption and GHG while removing hot bitumen from the process.

According to D’Angelo, the last ten years have also seen an increase in international markets in the use of specialised emulsions such as polymer modified emulsion (PME) and thixotropic emulsion that offer improved performance when compared to traditional emulsion.

“With the styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) polymer, you increase the elasticity and performance of the bitumen and extend the range of operating temperatures,” explains D’Angelo. “And the adoption of PME not only offers the opportunity to move away from the use of cutter but presents a more sustainable, safer solution while creating durable roads.”

“For example, in the UK in the last ten years they have completely switched to the use of PME,” cites D’Angelo. “This product is sprayed cold at 80 or 90 degrees without the need of cutters, and it can be used on high traffic roads ensuring high performance and durability.

In addition to spray seal operations, bitumen emulsion also offers the advantage

of preserving natural resources through recycling and use of cold mixes techniques that further reduce the carbon footprint.

ACHIEVING THE STRATEGY The first steps in the strategy have already been taken, according to Kevin McCullough, AfPA board member and chair of National Technology and Leadership committee.

“We’ve been discussing with Asset owners’ top management on the need to reduce cutter use and are expecting technical specifications to follow,” says McCullough.

“And we support the provision of polymer modified emulsion in urban areas as this is the short-term solution to the challenges of the current practice.”

Changes to cutting bitumen will be targeted firstly at urban areas due to the density of population.

“If you consider the hazards and emissions associated with the use of cutters, you’d want to start by selecting safer technologies to use in highly populated areas,” says D’Angelo. “So as an industry we want to improve safety for people and to reduce our impact on large-scale.” roadsonline.com.au

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MEET THE NEW

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF QLD AND NT BRINGING OVER 20 YEARS OF SECTOR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE WITH A VAST ARRAY OF DISCIPLINES, MARK PIORKOWSKI HAS BEEN APPOINTED THE NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF QUEENSLAND AND THE NORTHERN TERRITORY. HE TALKS TO ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE ABOUT THE JOURNEY THAT LED HIM TO AUSTRALIAN FLEXIBLE PAVING ASSOCIATION (AFPA) AND WHAT HE HOPES TO ACHIEVE.

P

iorkowski is a jack of all trades, moving from engineering to environment, from planning to economics through to social and community engagement. He has spent time in the private and public sectors as well as in city, rural and regional councils, and it was this range of experiences which made him the right fit for this new role. So how did he find himself where he is today?

THE ROADS ALLIANCE “I started studying geography and urban planning in my undergraduate degree in Toronto,” says Piorkowski. “And from there I went from a regulatory space where I was checking on large municipal projects around the Canadian Province of Ontario to project planning and working in business cases for road and rail transport.”

From here his portfolio continues to rapidly expand as he moves from transport planning in the private sector to regional and rural infrastructure projects right through to working for national tier one firms across Sydney and Brisbane on arrival in Australia.

Most recently he has held executive roles as a director in large regional local governments in Queensland and NSW. One of Piorkowski’s milestone projects was during his time at the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ), and is one many from Queensland might recognise: The Roads Alliance.

Jointly administered by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads 18

ROADS JUNE 2021

Mark Piorkowski, AfPA Executive Director for Queensland and Northern Territory.

(DTMR) alongside the commonwealth and council, the Roads Alliance has won the Roads Federation Award for Best Practice Program Management with this programme having resulted in nearly half a billion dollars in investments into the road network since its initial conception in 2002.

“What this program meant, was really bringing together local government councils with the DTMR directors and regional directors to deliver on a set of objectives that were agreed by both the Local Association of Queensland and the DTMR,” explains Piorkowski.

For Piorkowski, it was really about bringing people from different spaces to the same table, to agree on a common objective, under common road infrastructure

definitions which created shared funding priorities for the shared state and local government road network. These were defined under the programme as the “Roads of Regional Significance”.

“To be able to bring everyone to the table, we needed to have an understanding of what they wanted and how that could create common ground,” says Piorkowski.

With the Roads Alliance still playing a strong role in how the roads in Queensland are seen today, from the shared definition of the roads themselves within the network to agreed multi-jurisdictional assessments on road ratings, the initiative marks the rewards successful cooperation between local government and regional districts can bring.

SKILLSET Piorkowski’s time at LGAQ also saw him travelling the length and breadth of Queensland, developing his skills in the role of an advocate.

“With the Roads Alliance being state-wide, I have seven years of built-up knowledge of the geography and landscape of Queensland, and really a great appreciation of this state from top to bottom. And also, of the motels in every area,” adds Piorkowski laughing.

With many members from the AfPA and from organisations such as DTMR situated throughout the state, from Cairns to Brisbane, Piorkowski finds he can relate to them quickly thanks to this knowledge of the areas and the issues they might be facing.

And as a master of multi-disciplines who

Mark Piorkowski at the State Emergency Service Guyra Unit Headquarters opening.

has travelled the state, Piorkowski holds the skill of storytelling to bring the people and the projects together.

“From my experience as a project manager, you have to be across various disciplines as what you’re doing is weaving them together and creating a story, like a narrative, around a project,” says Piorkowski. “You need to encourage people to proceed, and part of that is understanding the economics and the geography, for example, and even so far as the cost-benefit of project and an understanding what demand there is for [the project].”

According to Piorkowski, his career has taken him from general spaces to very specific work, such as his work on the ground travelling and communicating with 77 of the LGAQ members, and these skills have helped him understand members from both a strategic and tactical level.

“Being able to communicate what members want back into a narrative that is understood on a strategic federal or state level means you’ve also got to understand what the government is trying to achieve,” says Piorkowski. “It’s all linked together.”

Being able to act as the intermediary and bringing everyone together is a vehicle of change that Piorkowski understands well.

AfPA So how did Piorkowski find his way to AfPA? “From my work in regional areas, I actually had increased engagement with the AfPA members in contract work within my areas, and I become very familiar with the work

they did,” says Piorkowski.

With Piorkowski being well versed in a range of operational matters from regional councils that oversaw road and bridge maintenance to management of a regional airport, Piorkowski has strong experience in what he describes as “the pointy end” of infrastructure design, planning and delivery.

“And I really know, from experience, how important the road network is in regional Australia,” says Piorkowski. “And I also understand the critical role AfPA members have in contributing to keeping them open and safe.”

From here, Piorkowski wants to utilise his storytelling, overview approach to bring AfPA to the table with other key decision-makers

and governments to ensure they are a part of decisions that affect the industry.

“I saw an opportunity to join a strong organisation who have positively made a huge impact on the surfacing industry,” shares Piorkowski. “And I really look to strengthen this impact through proactive engagement across the issues and matters that count for every AfPA member.”

With Piorkowski’s career having taken him to all corners of the industry, he believes this is what he’ll draw on to bring positive impact.

“I consider it like I have a large toolkit so depending on what I need to do, I can draw from a lot of sources,” says Piorkowski. “And this is one of the key skills that I’ll bring to the AfPA.”

Mark Piorkowski with Libby Martin, Councillor for Armidale Regional Council and Adam Marshall, Minister for Agriculture and Western NSW.

roadsonline.com.au

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AfPA

MEMBER PROFILE ANDREW HAYES, GENERAL MANAGER, HARSCO ENVIRONMENTAL 1. HOW LONG HAVE YOU/YOUR COMPANY BEEN AN AFPA MEMBER AND WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO BECOME ONE? Harsco has been a member for three years and joined as a gateway for highlighting our recycled materials that are ideal for use in asphalt for road safety by building a network with asphalt contractors both big and small.

2. HOW DID YOU START YOUR CAREER IN THE ROAD CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY? My career is actually in steel making, where I have worked for over 38 years. Ten years ago, Harsco, as leaders in solutions and value add synergies for recycling by-products from the steel industry, we decide to utilise the global expertise available within the company instead of sending these materials to land fill.

3. WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT ROLE AND WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE? I have been general manager of Harsco Environmental for 14 years and based in Laverton. We are a steel mill service provider company providing various services to the steel manufacturer. I oversee the management team and aggregate business and enjoy working with the leaders and customers from both businesses, especially looking at new opportunities and challenges, as well as working with government regulatory bodies in finding new recycling solutions of our materials, on top of what we have in place.

4. WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT YOUR CURRENT ROLE? The people are definitely the highlight for me! Regardless of who they are, what level or position they hold in a business; 20

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it’s the interaction and enthusiasm they show to be involved in new ideas that can make a difference to our or their business, especially as the last 12 months have taken a terrible toll on a number of industries and businesses across Australia.

5. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT IN THE INDUSTRY? I think my longevity and being involved in the various roles within this business and being a part of driving change to not only make our service or product better but also safer for its intended end use/user but also more diversified.

6. WHAT IS A RECENT CHANGE YOU HAVE SEEN IN THE INDUSTRY AND HOW ARE YOU/THE COMPANY PREPARED FOR THAT? Any business needs to be competitive and the last 12 months through this pandemic has seen various opportunities arise, due to reduced imports and a push for locally made products, but customers are also demanding even more bang for their dollar, which is understandable, as competition ramps up.

7. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS MOST INTERESTING ABOUT THE ROAD CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY? Innovation and product development piqued my interest during the years of being involved with road construction customer/companies and continues to do so.

8. HOW HAS BEING A MEMBER OF AFPA BENEFITTED YOU IN THE INDUSTRY? Developing relationship and improving our wider network with likeminded people/companies has been a real positive from our membership.

9. WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR THE FUTURE? I want to continue to grow our aggregates business and am keen to further develop our high friction/skid resistant surfacing in continuing to improve road safety across Victorian black spots; in which we have worked closely with government regulatory authorities for several years now.

A f P A 2 0 2 1 In t e rn a t iona l F le xi b l e P avem en ts S ym p o si u m

Roads going full circle 3 - 5 August 2021

AUSTRALIAN FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT ASSOCIATION

Symposium 2021

Introducing

Keynote Speakers

Dr George Chang

Gaylon L. Baumgardner Ph.D.

Wayne Schwass

Dr George Chang will give a keynote presentation under the general keynote of “Maximising performance & durability”

Gaylon Baumgardner will provide a summary report and key takeaways of the bitumen emulsion session held during the 7th E&E Congress

Wayne Schwass will provide a keynote address outlining how normalising mental health and acknowledging emotional wellbeing have become paramount in today’s fast paced world.

https://www.afpa.asn.au/keynote-speakers/

Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia

ISCA CONNECT CONFERENCE

HYBRID EVENT 2021

BY ADRIENNE MILLER, ISCA GENERAL MANAGER OF NEW ZEALAND.

O

n May 19, 2021 the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) will host their annual conference with this year’s theme focusing on ‘Resilience and the Role of an Infrastructure Led Recovery’.

With investments into the roads and infrastructure industries seen as the ‘roadmap’ out of COVID, integrating sustainability into these multi-billion projects will be key to ensuring Australia meets its sustainability development goals.

According to the federal government’s infrastructure advisor, Infrastructure Australia, sustainable infrastructure is about meeting the population’s needs while simultaneously adhering to sustainability principles such as rehabilitation, reuse and re-optimisation.

The event will highlight these very principles, with ISCA creating the leadership to drive best practice in infrastructure, advocating for change and enabling the industry to be connected and collaborative.

ISCA Connect 2021 will be held both virtually and in person with sessions focusing on developing a circular economy, building resilience, investing in workforce capacity and capability and the journey towards net zero emissions.

It will also focus on technology, regional growth, climate risk and workforce wellbeing. A session on impact and innovation will round out the day and participants will have the opportunity to engage with a number of ISupply Exhibitors and their latest product developments.

Following Ainsley Simpson, CEO of Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia opening address, keynote speakers at the event will include Andrew Constance, Minister for Roads and Transport, Shane Fitzsimmons, Commissioner of Resilience NSW, Romilly Madew, CEO of Infrastructure Australia and Peter Church, Acting Chief Executive 22

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Adrienne Miller, ISCA General Manager of New Zealand.

“IT WILL ALSO FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY, REGIONAL GROWTH, CLIMATE RISK AND WORKFORCE WELLBEING. A SESSION ON IMPACT AND INNOVATION WILL ROUND OUT THE DAY AND PARTICIPANTS WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE WITH A NUMBER OF ISUPPLY EXHIBITORS AND THEIR LATEST PRODUCT DEVELOPMENTS.” of Sydney Trains.

Tickets to attend the conference on the day will allow guests access to all sessions and panels, participation in question and answers with the speakers and access to ISupply exhibitions.

The event will provide a platform to network and connect with industry leaders and decision makers in sustainable infrastructure, sharing knowledge and connecting across the supply chain.

The event will run from 8am to 6:30pm AEST, and will be held at The Calyx at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney, NSW. For more information contact events@ isca.org.au or head to the event website: events.humanitix.com/isca-connectconference-may-2021 ISCA The Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) is Australia and New

Zealand’s authority on sustainable infrastructure projects and assets. ISCA’s purpose is to ensure all infrastructure delivers cultural, social, environmental and economic benefits.

The Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) rating scheme is mandated by the most progressive delivery agencies and asset operators across Australia and New Zealand with over $165 billion infrastructure (by CAPEX) undertaking the rating. ISCA represents more than 170 individual companies, departments and associations with a combined annual turnover of more than $47.4 billion.

We support our sector with training and capacity building, connecting suppliers of sustainable products and services with projects through ISupply, and through advocacy that advances policy, standards and specifications toward a low carbon, resilient, inclusive infrastructure future.

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PRECASTER DEVELOPS EPD FOR CONCRETE PIPES

A PROUD ADVOCATE FOR SUSTAINABILITY IN CIVIL CONSTRUCTION, PIPES MANUFACTURER HUMES HAS DEVELOPED AND PUBLISHED AN ENVIRONMENTAL PRODUCT DECLARATION (EPD) FOR REINFORCED CONCRETE PIPES UNDER ACCREDITATION OF EPD AUSTRALASIA.

Humes has a history of supplying critical, high quality precast elements.

T

he company’s commitment to environmental transparency was ground-breaking for the construction manufacturing industry. The precast and prestressed concrete products’ EPD was certified and published in 2020.

Humes uses the lifecycle modelling data from their EPDs to calculate the embodied carbon of precast products for each project and offset these carbon emissions by supporting projects that affect real change.

As a part of its commitment to sustainability, the company has partnered with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) as a member since 2010.

Alongside the ISCA, Humes has helped 24

ROADS JUNE APR/MAY 20212016

develop sustainable practices for design, construction and operation of infrastructure projects.

Humes is also certified under the Australian Government’s National Carbon Offset Standard, ‘Climate Active, Carbon Neutral’.

National Precast Concrete Association Australia Chief Executive Officer Sarah Bachmann commends Humes for its initiatives in sustainability.

“It’s master precasters like Humes who are leading the way with best practice across environmental and other industry benchmarks,” comments Bachmann.

As the Australian precast division of global

building materials company LafargeHolcim, Humes has a strong and established history of supplying critical, high quality precast elements to infrastructure projects nationwide.

Impressively, LafargeHolcim is the first global building materials company to commit to a net zero pledge by 2050, with core 2030 targets aligned and validated with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) – a joint initiative by CDP, the UN Global Compact (UNGC), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and WWF intended to increase corporate ambition on climate action. The journey toward net zero has seen LafargeHolcim reduce CO2 intensity by 27 per cent since 1990, focusing on reduction initiatives including clinker substitution, renewable energy, carbon capture and development of green products.

Precast concrete is a durable construction material that is suitable for both civil and architectural applications. Its manufacture uses local materials and supports local communities. The longevity of precast structures contributes to a sustainable building future by ensuring buildings and civil works last for many generations. As well, they are fire, flood and termite safe and thermally efficient. Precast buildings also require minimal maintenance.

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We pride ourselves on working with our clients to provide quality products to specification, to schedule and within budget.

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We offer: Large scale pre tensioning casting beds and capacity for full mould development for bespoke precast concrete elements Large lift capacities and transport solutions Ancillary works such as anti-graffiti coating and specialist treatments Barrier rail and hand rail fabrication and installation A team of Drafters, Engineers, Technical Specialists and Designers We are VicRoads prequalified to R3, B3 and F25, RMS prequalified to C2 Complex prestressed concrete products. We hold ISO certifications to 9001 (Quality), 14001 (Environment) and 4801 and 45001 (Safety).

We have over 30 years of experience specialising in low maintenance precast concrete bridges.

When you work with the best, you deliver the best!

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ROADS REVIEW

FOR THE MARCH ROADS REVIEW COLUMN ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE ASKS ROAD CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY LEADERS: ‘WHAT ARE SOME INNOVATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE PRODUCTS THAT ARE CHANGING CONSTRUCTION?’

MICHAEL CALTABIANO, CEO, ARRB The increasing role of recycled materials in road Infrastructure will profoundly change the way in which we build the future mobility network. Specifications that call up minimum recycled material content requirements are forcing road engineers to challenge the norm and innovate for the future.

Recycled waste stream materials like concrete, plastic and tyre rubber have more recently been joined by energy from waste by-products, mining and refining waste streams together with new processing technologies to create a vast array of products available for use.

Our challenge as professionals in the infrastructure sector is to develop fit for purpose, value adding uses for this new stream of construction materials.

SARAH BACHMANN, CEO, NATIONAL PRECAST With sustainability high on the agenda of Australian infrastructure projects, Master Precasters are delivering innovation with use of recycled materials and recycling factory waste, reducing site waste, improved worker safety, highly efficient installation methods, high quality, durable and long-lasting structural elements and state-of-theart concrete mix designs and manufacturing methods. As well, modern alternative finish and coating options – such as staining and coatings that absorb CO2 and purify air improve aesthetic and environmental outcomes. Then there are new and improved systems for stormwater management as well as innovative precast elements that protect coastlines and support biodiversity.

JACQUI HANSEN, SENIOR ASSET MANAGEMENT ADVISOR, IPWEA Innovation and the use of emerging technologies in road construction is a rapidly evolving science. IPWEA represents many in the road construction industry. We encourage all road authorities to consider the whole of life costs when adopting emerging technologies. It is possible that the whole of life costs of roads constructed with innovative infrastructure products and processes may vary considerably. We support continued research and development into products and processes to give road authorities the information they need to make wise decisions on road assets, for their communities, in the short, medium, and long-term.”

If you or someone at your organisation is an industry leader and would like to be a part of this monthly column in 2021 please get in touch with Editor, Tara Hamid: tara.hamid@primecreative.com.au

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ROADS JUNE 2021

ROADS REVIEW

GRAHAM HENDERSON, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, DOWNER INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES The Hume City Council in Melbourne was the first adopter of Reconophalt, an asphalt product containing recycled asphalt, soft plastics, toner from used printer cartridges and crushed glass. Since the first trial of Reconophalt was laid in May 2018, Downer has produced over 180,000 tonnes of this innovative and sustainable product. Hume City Council, as an early adopter and a leader in the sustainability field, has placed over 22,000 tonnes of Reconophalt and in doing so saved 177 tonnes of CO2 emissions and avoided sending 19.5 million plastic bags, 2.75 million glass bottles, toner from 571,000 toner cartridges and 6,600 tonnes of recycled asphalt from going to landfill.

CHRIS MELHAM, CEO, CIVIL CONTRACTORS FEDERATION New and emerging technologies are increasingly being used by civil construction companies to improve productivity and enhance safety for civil construction workers and their equipment. These include next generation drone technologies which are being used more widely to support enhanced visualisation of day-to-day operations, and for the preparation of project progress reports. Mobile-phone technology is also being used by companies, including augmented reality to allow the user to overlay a threedimensional design over the built environment before dirt is moved. And more broadly across the industry, there are technological developments in machine control systems to improve efficiency and accuracy.

DR KERRY GRIFFITHS, IS TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, ISCA We are excited by the emergence of a range of different materials that are shifting the dial on embodied carbon and supporting building a circular economy. These include recycled asphalt, supplementary cementitious material in concrete and recycled aggregate. Through the IS Rating Scheme we have seen these materials help contribute to over 9.2 million tonnes of waste being diverted from landfill and 11 per cent reduction in carbon emissions from materials in FY2020.

BRANDON HITCH, CEO CICA Safety is always a priority for the crane industry and there is a growing interest in innovative training on how to mitigate risks that come with load (i.e. what is on the end of a crane hook) transportation and placement. New high-risk workshops offered to the industry ensure people are made aware of how to assess concrete lifter compatibility between the panel insert and clutch. This helps reduce the risk of rigging failure due to an inadequately supported concrete element and will improve industry safety and efficiency

roadsonline.com.au

27

CAT COMPACTING

PRICES

CAT UTILITY COMPACTORS ARE SEEN AS A BASIC BUT ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT WITH THEIR MULTI-FACETED ABILITIES HIGHLY VALUED. BUT, RYAN VAN DEN BROEK, SALES MANAGER FOR HASTINGS DEERING SAYS WITH A COMPETITIVE MARKET AND A VARIETY OF PLAYERS AND MODELS, IT’S HARD TO KNOW THE BEST VALUE FOR MONEY. ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE EXPLAINS. proud of their relationship.

“I mean, it’s a world renown product that is very good, and not just in the construction industry but across a number of industries far and wide,” says Van Den Broek.

W

ith many construction businesses ramping up work following the federal government’s $110 billion investment into roads and infrastructure industries earlier this year, Hastings Deering is aiming to support these small to medium businesses on the road to recovery.

“To try and give the maximum number of features for best value has always been a priority for us,” explains Van Den Broek.

“What we try to do is offer the best value for money in order to get these small to medium size companies the maximum amount of 28

ROADS JUNE 2021

efficiency going forward.”

According to Van Den Broek, that’s why offering options such as a zero per cent finance for the machines, or the right asset offer is important.

“The zero per cent finance is just another way we’re trying to make it easier for our customers to get machines working and making money for them quicker. Especially in combination with asset write off, I believe it’ll offer the best priced product,” says Van Den Broek.

Being a Cat utility equipment supplier for the past seven years, Hastings Deering is

FEATURES So, what’s just one of the innovative aspects about the utility roller?

According to Van Den Broek, it’s the ability to have both the roll-over folding protection bar and sun canopy at the same time.

While this may not sound ground-breaking, the safety benefits and innovation to have both is something to be appreciated.

“Traditionally, industry standard is to have the roll-over bar fold forward,” explains Van Den Broek. “And it’s hard to have both a canopy and a bar just because of the way it folds. But the Cat utility compactor’s bar folds against the back of the machine so it’s out of the way, allowing for both features.”

According to Van Den Broek, this allows for operators to remain inside the machine across a range of applications, from underlying tree lines to underground car parks, with traditional machines needing to have to re-bolt the bar and canopy when changing sites.

With the roll-over folding bar playing an important role in driver safety from falling objects and the sun canopy functioning both for comfort and health, the ability to attach both simultaneously is just one of the many features the Cat utility has compacted into the small machine.

“We also have the option to put extra counterweights on the outside surface of the drum to increase the weight on the machine,

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

therefore increasing the compacted strength of the machine,” adds Van Den Broek. “And this is very easily put on and off with a forklift and a couple of bolts.”

Most importantly, Van Den Broek stresses, since these machines are considered ‘basic’, their reliability is key.

“We have extended the service intervals; the utility compactors utilise self-contained bearings specifically for the vibration system,” says Van Den Broek. “And our vibration system only needs to be serviced at 3000-hour intervals.”

With zero per cent finance calling to some, a successful client story for Hastings Deering started with a pair of socks.

Queensland-based civil service company Mr Dig Earthmoving and Civil was used to renting equipment before its transition to almost an entire Cat fleet.

Managing director, Michael Steadman shares how he first met Hastings Deering’s sales representative back in 2016, through a pair of socks.

“He actually approached me on site with a pair of Cat socks and after that we ran into each other a couple of times on site,” recounts Steadman. “And from there I was

invited to a Cat dig day where I did a test drive on a new machine and like that, I signed up and the rest is history.”

According to Steadman, before they utilised Cat machinery, the business was used to the mentality of “you get what you’re given” with hired machinery. Now with the Hastings Deering, Steadman says vehicle quality and business growth has rapidly expanded.

“We started as a one-man combo which has grown to over an excess of 30 equipment pieces over the last five years,” says Steadman.

And the best aspect of Cat utility compactors?

According to Steadman, less challenges when working in underground covered car parks.

“The Cat utility small rollers and multi-tyre combination rolls have really gotten us out of some trouble,” says Steadman. “They’re a small compact size and are lower to the ground, whereas our competitive equipment just doesn’t fit in where we need it to fit.

“And I keep going back [to them]. We’ve had a couple of minor issues in the past, but they keep getting better every day,” says

Steadman. And clearly, he’s not the only one who thinks so.

With demand for the Cat utility compacters increasing rapidly over the last six to eight months, Van Den Broek is enthused with both federal and state government investments into the construction industries. From these investments, companies have gained greater confidence to go out and buy more machines, says Van Den Broek.

“We’ve really seen a big take-up in enquiries for all our general construction equipment,” says Van Den Broek. “And we want to support this and help our clients get their job done with minimal amount of downtime, serving [them in] cost [reduction].”

And what does Van Den Broek see for the future?

“I think we’ll see a big increase in the demand for machinery coming over the next 12 to 18 months,” he says. “We’re looking at more than the first initial purchase point for our customers, and this is why we’ve got this zero per cent offer on, we want to give the best value over life of the machine.”

WINNER

BEST TYRE RECYCLER

PREMIER CRANES #TeamLifting TO GO ABOVE AND BEYOND FOR THEIR CLIENTS

WITH AN UNDERSTANDING FOR WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS, PREMIER CRANES & RIGGING KNOWS THAT TO BEST SERVE ITS CLIENTS, IT HAS TO BEGIN WITH ITS PEOPLE.

Premier Cranes is constantly evolving its approach to buisiness.

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TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

B

uilt around a #TeamLifting strategy, Premier Cranes’ company culture focuses on decision making at all levels of the organisation and improving how each member within the team views their contribution in the quest for client satisfaction.

At the forefront of every decision is the question: “How will this benefit the client and how will it contribute to their satisfaction?”

LIFTING THE TEAM TO LIFT THE CLIENT Started 11 years ago by Steve Warton and Matt Clark, today Premier Cranes prides itself in its progressive approach with a decentralised management structure that empowers its employees.

“We are continually evolving our approach to the business and examining the way we do things,” says Warton. “It’s an old cliché, but Matt and I realised some time ago that our team will only be as strong as our weakest player, and this is the reason we place so much emphasis on #TeamLifting.”

The goal of this strategy is to drive consistent levels of high customer service through empowering team members with a decentralised management structure.

“With #TeamLifting there is an expectation that individuals evolve with the job and accept the responsibility of representing Premier Cranes every minute of every day,” says Clark. “It’s about how we encourage each individual to help others step up.”

Part of this #TeamLifting system of empowerment comes with individual development to ensure consistent high standards are met.

The #TeamLifting strategy impacts every aspect of Premier Cranes’ operations.

Premier Cranes ensures its people receive extensive coaching and leadership. “For example,” says Warton, “our engineers work and learn from senior engineers as part of #TeamLifting movement to ensure consistent solutions are offered and quality is assured for every element of the construction process.”

With each individual receiving feedback and training that focuses on how to create value for clients, Clark believes Premier Cranes’ people can then apply this approach to everything they do, so clients experience what #TeamLifting really means.

“We want everything Premier delivers to be of a consistently high standard,” says Warton.

EMPOWERING THE PEOPLE With Premier Cranes having crews spread across Melbourne and greater Victoria, Warton understands having a simple command-and-control approach won’t work.

“Part of #TeamLifting is empowering our people to execute planned lifts on our behalf,” says Warton. “Now with the #TeamLifting system in place, once a plan is agreed with the client, we’re able to hand it over to our crews, wherever they are, and if there’s any adjustments or changes, they have the confidence to work closely with the client to get the required result.”

And this all ties in with Premier Cranes’ ‘Cracking the Code’ strategy: consistently examining and improving ways to deliver on clients’ expectations and the value they are looking for, beyond just a price point.

According to Warton, this strategy is about looking for ways to add value for clients while maintaining a consistent service. And

while this might sound simple, it is a value not found in every provider.

“With our approach, we’re not just working under instruction, turning up on the day and lifting stuff,” says Warton.

“For us, it’s partnering up and actually working hard to propose solutions. Because we’ve empowered our people, if they see something that can be improved, they can go out and do it.”

To Warton, this is a very different approach to traditional methods. And this #TeamLifting approach flows through on all levels.

At the first touch point, the Premier Cranes team introduces the client to their strategy, ensuring they understand what the team will achieve for them.

“We understand and articulate back to the client what they are trying to achieve to ensure we connect the right cranes and people with the right task,” says Warton.

“So, from that first meeting point through to planning and into execution, we make a promise so that when it gets to the operational stage, we can give our clients the best possible outcome.”

But service doesn’t end at the site.

“We also discuss the post purchase experience where we loop back around and discuss the experience from the client’s perspective,” explains Warton.

“We understand the lessons learned and, wherever possible, ensure what we promised at the front end, we deliver in the back end.”

With the #TeamLifting strategy impacting every aspect of Premier Cranes’ operation, it’s clear that people: the workers and clients are at the heart of it all.

LIFTING STANDARDS With the construction industry traditionally being rigid, Warton understands how some companies are reluctant to embrace new ideas and approaches.

“In our experience, clients are responding very positively to the way we are approaching our business,” says Warton. “They understand that our approach to #TeamLifting equally applies to our team and our clients,” he concludes.

“By continually lifting our own standard with our #TeamLifting approach internally, we’re also raising the quality of our service to our clients and ultimately the client wins, which effectively is how our approach translates.” roadsonline.com.au

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WIRTGEN A WINNER FOR ROAD

REHABILITATION AND RECYCLING SAT CIVIL IS A PART OF HIWAY STABILIZERS AUSTRALIA AND IS AN AUSTRALASIAN STABILISATION SPECIALIST COMPANY WHOSE INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS REQUIRE A MATCHING INNOVATIVE FLEET OF EQUIPMENT. JAN WEINERT, GENERAL MANAGER OF SAT CIVIL SITS DOWN WITH ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE TO SHARE THEIR LONG-LASTING RELATIONSHIP WITH WIRTGEN.

W

hen asked how their processes ran before using Wirtgen’s products, Weinert summed it up simply: “We didn’t really have one, since we’ve started out, it’s always been Wirtgen.”

Having worked with Wirtgen Germany in the past, SAT Civil made contact with Wirtgen Australia when the company expanded their operations into Australia, in 1997.

“We formed a close relationship over the course of 1997 and since then have almost exclusively used Wirtgen gear,” says Weinert.

“We worked very closely with Wirtgen across almost all of our projects.”

According to Weinert, Wirtgen is a onestop-shop for them.

“Wirtgen provides a complete package to the client, from sales to training, spare parts and the maintenance or repair of the equipment,” explains Weinert. “They are very efficient in solving problems over the phone and are giving our operators advice on how to repair the machines in the case

of a breakdown.”

The Wirtgen team assists their clients in the field with service trucks and mobile mechanics with servicing and repairs.

This one-stop approach matches SAT Civil’s approach to delivering their services, with the team offering in-house pavement design capability as well as a wide range of pavement stabilisation solutions.

“The Wirtgen Soil Stabilisers that we are using are very reliable and economical to run due to the high-powered engines and the fact that the milling rotor is driven via belts directly from the engine,” says Weinert.

“Having this extra power translates into higher daily production outputs and better mixing quality at greater depths.”

Our company offers many different stabilisation processes such as lime and cement, in-situ foam bitumen as well as the plant mixed foam bitumen stabilisation of pavement materials.

“All of the stabilisation processes rely heavily on the accurate application of the

SAT Civil’s stabalisation processes rely on accurate equipment.

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relevant binders and process controls and this is where the Wirtgen equipment really excels,” says Weinert.

“With SAT Civil offering a wide range of services, having access to the technologies that Wirtgen and its subsidiaries offers allows us to carry out our operations with the right equipment for the job” says Weinert.

“The equipment that Wirtgen and its subsidiaries offers to the market is considered to be amongst the most sophisticated technology in the industry,” says Weinert.

One example of this sophistication and constant innovation, says Weinert, is Wirtgen’s WITOS digital interfaced operating system that keeps record and manages plant performance and maintenance.

“This system can be integrated into their machines and relays all information, in real time, back to the factory or to Wirtgen technicians so they monitor the machines operating parameters from the office and give advice accordingly,” says Weinert.

With the ability to monitor, record and share data in real time, faults can be discovered and eliminated well before breakdowns occur.

Moreover, Weinert says the Wirtgen technology also allows for fewer staff to operate the machines effectively and safely.

“The use of cameras and digital interfaces makes for a very user-friendly operating experience with great process control.”

But besides the advanced user interface, Weinert finds the Wirtgen equipment to be one of the most powerful available, particularly with the profilers and stabilisers that the company primarily uses.

“A great example of the reliability and power of the Wirtgen equipment was demonstrated on a large stabilisation project we have recently completed

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

in Central Queensland,” cites Weinert.

“The project required the subgrade to be stabilised to a depth of 350mm incorporating a triple blend cementitious binder followed by a 300mm in-situ stabilised foam bitumen base course layer.

The Wirtgen stabiliser and spreader truck we used handled both processes very well and operated reliably throughout the works till the completion of the project.”

The machines completed the entire 14-month long project without any breakdowns or mechanical issues, the SAT Civil’ team was very satisfied with the outcome.

“During the duration of this project, we had to deal with soft ground conditions as a result of some rain events, but the Wirtgen equipment handled the soft ground conditions very well and we managed to push through the works with minimal disruptions,” says Weinert.

Another benefit of Wirtgen machines is that they are built with future proofing in mind.

“Wirtgen machines are built in the factory with all the cabling that is necessary for

Wirtgen’s profilers and stabilisers are some of the most powerful available.

any additional attachments or upgrades that an operator might add to the machine later on,” explains Weinert. “This makes it easy to upgrade the machines to the newest systems or attachments with the use of conversion kits.”

With Wirtgen consistently “futureproofing” their machines, as Weinert

describes, he’s confident in the continuation of their relationship.

“As Wirtgen continues to bring more efficient machinery to the market that translates into higher productivity and better value means that we will always consider Wirtgen when purchasing machines in the future,” says Weinert.

AUSTRALIA’S NO.1 WHEELED EXCAVATOR

JCB HYDRADIG

Contact your local dealer today 1300 522 232 www.jcbcea.com.au The JCB Hydradig is a ground-breaking sorting, lifting, loading and tool-carrying machine for a wide variety of operations. Its low centre of gravity allows for stable lifting while working at full reach, and its two and four wheel steer and crab steering delivers maximum usability on the smallest of job sites. With ground level access to all maintenance points and a lift-up engine canopy providing excellent access to the engine and filters, servicing and maintenance can be carried out with ease.

Providing maximum productivity and safety, and unmatched visibility for the operator around the machine the JCB Hydradig is the ultimate machine for all material handling requirements.

THE HYDRADIG: WIDENING HORIZONS FOR

WHEELED EXCAVATORS TRADITIONALLY, WHEELED EXCAVATORS ARE FOUND AT ROAD CONSTRUCTION SITES OR COMPLETING LIGHT TO MEDIUM CIVIL WORK. HOWEVER, JCB’S NEWEST WHEELED EXCAVATOR, THE HYDRADIG 110W, IS CHANGING THE PERCEPTION OF WHAT INDUSTRIES THESE MACHINES ARE TYPICALLY FOUND IN, REDEFINING THE RANGE OF ROLES THEY CAN PERFORM.

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ith wheeled excavators typically designed with their weight higher off the ground, it took construction equipment manufacturer JCB sometime redesigning the classic wheeled excavator to find the perfect weight distribution formula.

Traditionally, the lower frame of a wheeled excavator is filled with its transmission, pushing almost all of its heavy components to the upper revolving frame. Due to this design, the stability of the machine is decreased.

According to Deon Cope, JCB’s national product manager for excavators, Hydradig and wheeled loaders, the team at JCB had the right expertise to work through 34

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the challenge which led to the lightbulb moment and from there Hydradig was developed.

“What is unique about the Hydradig is that we’ve taken JCB specific knowledge from our telehandler platform technology, which we’re number one in the world for, and combined it with wheeled excavator functionality,” says Cope.

The telehandler is a hybrid of load lifting machines, giving its operators the lifting range of cranes yet the load lifting capacity of forklifts.

“Utilising telehandler platform technology, we’ve managed to rearrange everything so that the heavy components

such as the engine, cooling pack and the hydraulic tanks sit in the lower frame with the transmission,” says Cope.

The introduction of a new hydraulic package sends oil from the lower frame to the upper revolving frame, where a main control valve is located. The new hydraulic system gives the Hydradig a very precise and accurate feel.

“We initially released the Hydradig into the Australian market at the end of 2017,” says Cope. “And we’ve really seen great growth since its introduction. We did an initial launch program and quickly sold a number of units into various applications because it’s not just about the stability, but the visibility you get.”

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

BIRD’S EYE VIEW With the machine’s heavy components shifted into the lower frame, the operators view is no longer blocked by the equipment.

“When you’re sitting in the machine, you’ve now got a 360-degree view of the crews that are working in and around the machine, so if people are working in a site trench you can easily see them from the cab,” says Cope.

The ability to see all four corners of the Hydradig’s wheels means a greater ability to position and control the machine in a safe manner. Even when operating the machine on the freeway or driving from point to point, having a full view helps avert dangerous situations, according to Cope.

“Allowing the driver to be situated up high in the wheeled excavator has meant the machine is now suitable to a range of different applications,” says Cope. “We’ve started to put the Hydradig into vegetation maintenance, and we’ve also got one over in Perth working in tree pruning applications.”

Significantly improving the stability of the Hydradig has removed the glass ceiling for JCB, allowing for greater above-ground applications. With the heavy components creating counterweight and true 50/50 weight distribution, an operator can lift heavy attachments at maximum reach over the side of vehicle while maintaining stability and safety.

TAILSWING Another significant advantage that comes from rearranging the excavator’s components is the reduction of the machines’ tailswing, or rear machine movement when slewing.

The Hydradigs tailswing has been reduced

to 120 millimetres, which allows for greater manoeuvrability, mobility and vision.

While this in itself is a design feat, says Cope, it is the difficulty JCB’s competitors will have matching the design that will set the Hydradig apart in the market.

“While many other manufacturers are also designing their wheeled excavator to reduce the tailswing, similar to the Hydradig design, other machines have to compensate for the weight of the heavy upper frame with higher machine backs,” explains Cope.

“The backs are going higher across many competitive brands to move to higher emission engines, you have to package and use particular filters and other additional components relating to emission controls,” says Cope. “So, because the machine has all of the heavy components in the upper frame, the only way to reduce your tail swing is to go up, resulting in a higher back; but this creates lower visibility and impacts stability.”

With the Hydradig, all these extra emissions components can fit into the lower frame, ensuring the back height for JCB’s wheeled excavator can remain low.

“I believe it’ll be a lot of work for our competitors to re-engineer their machines to meet our wheeled excavator design,” says Cope. “And its simply because they are sticking with the traditional excavator platform; we’ve just taken a classic design and literally flipped things around.”

MODIFIABILITY Another reason that the Hydradig is able to be applied to a wider range of industries compared to a standard wheeled excavator is its ability to operate a large range of

Specialists in stability management

attachments to meet different clients’ needs.

“Our platforms have been designed in a way that they can be modified and put into different markets,” says Cope. “It just takes a client to say, ‘hey we need to do this’ and then for us it’s just about figuring out what attachment we need to make it work.”

One example Cope cites is introducing fork frames to the Hydradig’s design to increase its lifting abilities, or modifying the cab to be able to extend vertically to improve the vision when pruning avocado trees.

“The machine is supplied with a triple articulated boom that offers nearly two extra metres of additional reach compared to a traditional mono boom platform,” says Cope.

But JCB isn’t just reaching to new heights with tree picking or pruning. Mid-level demolition where extra reach is required or waste applications with hydraulic rotating grabs are all examples of applications Cope believes are achievable with Hydradig.

‘It’s really the Swiss Army Knife of the industry once you start modifying and adding different functionalities,” says Cope.

“I mean, we’re looking at applications on a solar farm right now and also in construction, maintenance, and cleaning sectors, all with one package.”

This rapid industry expansion for Cope and the JCB team comes from consistently thinking outside the box.

“And that’s the Hydradig in essence, it’s just one example of looking outside the box.

It’s just remembering that sometimes, there’s a better, more productive way to do things.”

Hummingbird Electronics are specialists in electronic vehicle and machinery safety solutions.

We offer a suite of safety focused products designed to protect operators and equipment in the mining, civil, industrial, machinery hire and agriculture industries.

Designed and manufactured in Australia to the highest standards, Hummingbird is a brand you can trust to improve safety on your worksite.

Dual Axis Inclinometer – Elite

GPS Trip Meters

HMDS8000 We offer a range of digital inclinometers that provide operators of machinery with highly visible pitch and roll measurements.

Our Elite model features configurable warning and alarm levels for pitch, roll and speed. It’s also capable of data logging these events to its internal memory.

HMGT range Our GPS trip meters are a popular choice for councils and road authorities. Easy to install and operate, they are used for marking road locations for repair, measuring sign and cone positioning for lane closures and traffic control as well as road length measurements.

1300 155 541

hmbe.com.au

Hummingbird

Electronics 7010-210310

SENSORS AND SAFETY

ON THE ROAD

WHILE VEHICLE AND ROAD SAFETY WITHIN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR HAS COME A LONG WAY, THERE ARE ALWAYS UNEXPECTED DANGERS ON THE ROAD. SENSOR EQUIPMENT, HOWEVER, IS FAST DEVELOPING TO A POINT WHERE IT IS ABLE TO PREDICT AND COUNTERACT SUCH HAZARDS.

S

cott Montgomery, Hummingbird mining and industrial sales manager sits down with Roads & Infrastructure to discuss the market’s newest safety sensors.

HMGT8000 GPS TRIP METER - ELITE Global positioning system (GPS) sensors are a multi-purpose technology used in a range of industries from emergency response calls in the health sector to in-game tracking within entertainment sectors.

And now, in the construction sector, it is being used to increase the safety of operators and drivers particularly in the preplanning and transport stages.

The Hummingbird Elite GPS Trip Meter is its newest GPS sensor model used to detect damage to roads and record road conditions on up to eight different trips.

“If a driver was to see a pot-hole or a potential hazard on the road, they can use the GPS’s touch screen to place a marker on the map,” explains Montgomery. “And you can use this function to record anything from a survey point to serious road damage.”

The key benefit of recording all this data, says Montgomery, is its ability to be shared.

“All that information can be extracted and overlayed to Google Maps so someone else can reference that exact information and see visibly where it is on a Google Earth Map to help avert dangerous situations,” says Montgomery.

The elite tracker can also record the vehicle’s coordinates, driving time and distance covered, indicating if the vehicle is stationary or how fast it’s moving. This consistent recording creates a wealth of data helping to detect and alert of unsafe operator behaviour.

“Some companies also use it to check when dozer tracks were last put on or when oil or

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Hummingbird’s HMDS2000 Dual Axis Inclinometer.

Hummingbird’s HMGT8000 GPS Trip Meter - Elite.

engine changes last occurred, and that’s how they track maintenance,” says Montgomery.

Traditionally, distances were recorded by walking on foot, but according to Montgomery, the elite device allows the operator to calculate distance, from the safety of their car.

HMDS2000 DUAL AXIS INCLINOMETER (INCLUDING 1-DEGREE STANDARD SENSOR) Functioning in a completely different safety realm than the GPS, the Hummingbird Dual Axis Inclinometer is used for measuring pitch and providing visibility and roll readout with audio alert systems.

“We’ve got four variants of this model; the first two are smaller, and have an internal sensor which is good for light vehicles with a solid chassis,” explains Montgomery. “The

other two utilise an external sensor that is great for trucks or machinery with a high centre of gravity.”

According to Montgomery, the larger, external sensors help alarm drivers who are sitting in front, perhaps on flat ground, that a connected trailer or vehicle behind them is on a slope.

“So, the driver can view all this information while sitting there or even driving along,” says Montgomery. “And the inclinometer has an alarm feature where the screen will turn yellow to alert if the slope becomes too steep, and at its max point will alarm and turn red, alerting via a buzzer, or linked voice alarm.”

The inclinometer can also be linked to an external device that can add an extra safety function such as auto locking the truck from Moving or inhibiting a tipper from raising any further.

The inclinometer, similarly, to the Elite GPS, also logs data such as the vehicle’s speed, GPS coordinates, location and the angle of movement at the time of an event. This wealth of data helps to recognise dangerous behaviour and acts as prevention or follow up in the case of an accident.

SAFETY With both sensors working to ensure driver safety, albeit in different ways, what distinguishes these from others on the market, says Montgomery, is their specific customer design that is made in Australia.

“We are largely driven by our customers’ request, so as our customers demand more features, then we integrate that into our products,” says Montgomery. “We are always ensuring our products advance with the times, and provide the safety that our customers need.”

TECHNOLOGY & EQUIPMENT

USER FRIENDLINESS PARAMOUNT FOR

DYNAPAC CITY PAVERS

WITH MACHINERY EVER INCREASING IN COMPLEXITY AND SIZE, THE ABILITY TO DESIGN AN EASY-TO-OPERATE PIECE OF CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY WHICH REQUIRES MINIMAL TO NO USER TRAINING IS A VALUE NOT LOST ON RALF PETER, DYNAPAC’S NATIONAL TECHNICAL PAVING SPECIALIST.

T

he City Paver, created by global construction equipment manufacturer Dynapac and distributed in Australia by CEA, is one example of this value, designed with user friendliness and operability in mind, cramming power into a compact package.

Having worked with competitive models in the past, Peter is one who understands the importance of each of those factors, however none less important than creating an easy-to-operate machine.

“Having an easy-to-use machine is important, especially for businesses which are consistently changing crews, or hiring different equipment,” says Peter. “Ideally, you should be able to jump into a new machine and know how to operate it on a basic level, even if you’ve never dealt with it before.”

To Peter, having simple functions and buttons that are recognisable to operators is what helps drive the easy operation concept of the Dynapac City Paver.

The City Paver features a large display and operators control panel with simple buttons and switches that Peter highlights is important in assisting operators to both feel and control the paving operation better.

increase its paving width,” says Peter.

“However, it still remains small enough to do a variety of smaller, more precise jobs, and it’s very good with fuel consumption.”

SIZE MATTERS With the City Paver being a compact frame paver, another feature Peter touches on is its ability to easily manoeuvre around site with speed.

“The City Paver can pretty much set up, pave, pack up and be moved onto the next project, all within a short timeframe,” says Peter.

Dynapac’s City Pavers are able to lay up to 350 tonnes of asphalt per hour, with working widths ranging from 0.7 metre to 4.7 metre wide.

“So even though it’s a smaller frame machine, it’s big enough to still put on extensions that allow the Dynapac to

DOWNER GETTING DIGITAL Downer shares its experience with CEA and Dynapac’s City Pavers.

Downer are always exploring different styles of pavers from their current fleet, when an encounter with Peter opened the door of opportunity and they were able to try the new City Pavers. The initial trial saw Downer using a six-foot paver which was able to lay down 680 tonnes in its debut shift.

The amount of asphalt the machine was able to lay down, however, wasn’t the only benefit. The City Paver also offered Downer greater digital capabilities and data than ever experienced before.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT A way Dynapac has been able to continuously refine the machines’ user experience and friendliness is by going straight to the source: the users themselves.

“In Australia, when a customer comes to us, our process is to offer them a trial machine so they can fully experience what the machine is like,” explains Peter. “And then, we provide them with a feedback form which they fill out for us, painting a picture of how the machine performed compared with the customers’ expectations.”

From there, the CEA team passes the feedback onto the Dynapac factory in Germany where the engineers are able to collate this feedback with other clients’ feedback from all around the world to improve Dynapac’s machine design.

“This helps the machine to be consistently improved and made easier for operators to use,” says Peter. “[That comes by] listening to people that actually use it.”

The City Paver by Dynapac is a compact and user-friendly asphalt paver.

With Dynapac’s new City Paver having online instant reporting abilities, Downer fleet operators could gather real-time data on what the machine was doing, it’s performance and when these events were occurring.

This all falls under Dynapac’s inclusive customer service. Consistent updates are sent to the machine’s owners automatically, using the City Paver’s built-in GPS tracker to send data on where the machine has been, as well as information on how it is performing at any point in time.

And how did the Downer team find the equipment’s user friendliness?

Downer reports finding Dynapac’s City Paver quick and easy to learn, with the Downer team being able to train people with limited previous machine knowledge.

PAVING THE WAY With an overwhelming positive response from Australian customers in the last year, Peter is confident in the continuous up-take of the Dynapac Pavers.

“Even though we initially introduced it around 2016 and 2017, we’ve only just started to ramp up our marketing operations, and already we’ve had really positive feedback,” says Peter. “We’re currently running more trials in Melbourne and hope to develop a good customer base from here, because that’s what we’ve built this machine around: our customers.” roadsonline.com.au

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ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABILITY

RESOURCECO:

READY TO SUPPORT GOVERNMENT’S GREEN INITIATIVES THE RECENT GLOBAL CHALLENGES HAVE CREATED A GROWING APPETITE FOR CHANGE WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD A CLEAN, SAFE, AND SUSTAINABLE WORLD. THE FOCUS IS NOW ON RESHAPING THE PLANET AND UNLOCKING ITS TRUE POTENTIAL TO TACKLE GROWING GLOBAL AND LOCAL CONCERNS. ResourceCo’s Resource Recovery Facility in Wetherill Park, NSW.

T

he United Nations Sustainable Development Goals set a target of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 with a rapid transition to clean renewable energy.

Jim Fairweather, chief executive officer of ResourceCo, and a leader with extensive experience in the sector, says there has never been such a sense of urgency and an accelerated effort to be future ready.

“We are definitely encouraged by the collective efforts to position the local resource recovery industry to become globally competitive, with recycling and clean energy being one of the six priority areas under the Australian Government’s $1.5 billion Modern Manufacturing strategy,” says Fairweather.

The recent announcement of funding availability under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) creates strong opportunities for Australian manufacturers be more competitive, resilient and build scale in the global market.

Complementing global efforts to tackle growing environmental concerns, the federal 38

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and state governments of Australia have stepped up their focus on and commitment to investment in an effort to encourage a repositioning of the resource recovery industry.

“Living true to our brand promise that we have an obligation to leave the planet in a better state than we found it, ResourceCo has continued to innovate, expand and invest in its remanufacturing capabilities over the past 30 years,” says Fairweather. “That’s always been done with a strong eye on ensuring our operations have a positive impact on the communities in which we operate and live.”

The roadmap for recycling and clean energy released in April 2021 exemplifies the opportunities across recycling and clean energy to make Australian manufactures world leaders. It sets the framework for successfully building on growing global demand for green, clean products and collaborating across material and energy supply chains to mobilise large scale investments.

Fairweather says that as a global leader in resource recovery and the production

of renewable energy, ResourceCo is well positioned to steer a growth pathway through 2021 and beyond.

“We’re focused on providing innovative solutions and scaling up our operations in a way that builds on our strong track record in delivering sustainable economic, environmental and socially responsible outcomes.

“To achieve that we have increased the sophistication of our plants and machinery, ultimately expanding our capacity to cater to growing local and global demand and further support the roll-out of the waste export bans.”

“We have invested over $40 million on new plants and machinery in what is the most ambitious capital investment program in our history, with new plants planned for Sydney, Perth, and the Pilbara this year.”

That includes the launch of a new multimillion-dollar plant at Eskine Park in Sydney for ResourceCo’s tyre recycling division Tyrecycle. It will expand the company’s production capacity for tyre-derivedfuel (TDF) and rubber crumb (used in road construction), ahead of the December 2021 ban on the export of whole-baled tyres.

Fairweather is optimistic that the support from the federal government in tackling barriers in a coordinated way, through initiatives such as the export ban, will go a long way towards driving strong commercial and environmental outcomes that support job creation.

“We’re also encouraged to see the roadmap acknowledge the importance of a commitment by government agencies to consider environmental sustainability and the use of recycled content in purchasing decisions,” he says.

“As the world moves rapidly to more sustainable ways of using earth’s limited resources to reduce emissions and waste, we all need to remain agile and relevant.”

ROADS & INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE

SUPPORTS THE INSIDE WASTE INDUSTRY REPORT 2021 If you work in or provide a product or service to the civil works or construction industry, we want to hear from you!

To better understand the markets for recovered materials Roads & Infrastructure is conducting a survey on the appetite, barriers and opportunities for boosting the use of recycled content material in civil works and construction.

Scan the code below and help us map out the demand for recycled materials by taking this 4 min anonymous survey.

To find out more about the magazines that cater to the waste and recovery industry, get in touch with Chelsea Daniel-Young by email on Chelsea.daniel@primecreative.com.au or call +61 (0)425 699 878

THIS MESSAGE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY PRIME CREATIVE MEDIA. Registered Address: Prime Creative Media, 11-15 Buckhurst St, South Melbourne VIC 3205, Australia.

Ph: (03) 9690 8766 ©2021 Prime Creative Media

PRECISE PLANNING FOR

NVC PRECAST PASSAGE FROM BUILDING BRIDGES TO SUPPORTING PIERS, PRECAST CONCRETE IS CRITICAL TO THE SUCCESS OF MANY INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS, BUT FEW KNOW THE EXTENSIVE LOGISTICAL PLANNING AND COORDINATION REQUIRED TO SAFELY DELIVER THESE GOLIATH-LIKE STRUCTURES TO SITE.

Transporting precast elements requires meticulously orchestrated planning.

F

or every colossal concrete structure, there is an equally awe-inspiring network of companies, teams and technical specialists that are needed to collaborate to bring the project together.

If anyone knows this, it’s concrete precast specialist NVC Precast. Having worked in the construction industry for over 30 years, the company specialises in manufacturing a range of reinforced and prestressed substructure and superstructure components for the civil construction projects. This includes concrete panels and piles, abutments, crossheads, pier columns, planks, T-Beams and L-Beams.

Pre-casting concrete components off-site provides many benefits to the to the overall construction process. By ensuring that the elements are cast in controlled conditions, the concrete quality is improved, allowing rapid on-site installation which reduces the overall construction footprint and duration of the works.

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ROADS JUNE 2021

Transporting the precast elements that are continually increasing in dimensions, mass and complexity requires meticulously orchestrated planning, extensive approval processes and strict health and safety precautions, for both the operators and the road users.

Cindy Stocks, CEO of Stocks Oversize Pilots, has worked with NVC on some of these mammoth projects, providing pilot escorting service for many of the oversized beams and precast elements supplied by NVC Precast to large infrastructure projects throughout Victoria. She has had her pilot driver license for more than five years and notes the importance of a strong team in the complex transport of pre-cast structures.

“There is an amazing amount of trust placed in these operators first and foremost by each other, the companies they work for and represent, the project managers and the general public as a whole,” she tells Roads & Infrastructure. “Movement of products

that are this big and the weights involved mean that those entrusted to operate this equipment must be at the top of their game each and every time they venture out on to the roads.”

Stocks sits down with Roads & Infrastructure to walk us through the journey NVC Precast, and the transport teams must undergo to move these oversized loads. She draws from a recent NVC Precast project which required the creation and transport of 30-metre ‘Super T’ concrete beams. The transport team that undertook this immense task was Big Hill Heavy Haulage, assisted by Stocks Oversize Pilots.

Before any beam is loaded onto a vehicle, both NVC Precast and the transport teams undertake an array of transport permit approvals and route planning.

“The process is a lengthy one with many steps needing to be followed before you can even apply for an Oversize Load permit,” says Stocks. “Especially when transporting

INFRASTRUCTURE IN FOCUS

long and heavy items like a Super T concrete bridge beam that is up to 35 metres long, weighing approximately 85 tonnes.”

The first stage in the planning is to carry out an in-depth route survey of the proposed course. This determines whether the proposed roads are suitable to travel, given load weight and width. The team must also inspect whether there is enough road space and connecting roads to divert and clear traffic. A swept-path analysis ensures that the specialist vehicles can manoeuvre through the bends and intersections of the nominated routes. The team also calculates the potential traffic delays and the impact to other road users, considering everything from traffic signals, light poles, street signs, powerlines, and even street furniture.

“When looking at a route survey, particularly with a load of this length alongside the width of the heavy haulage equipment being used to transport the load, it is an absolute must to be 100 per cent sure that the load can safely traverse through each turn, intersection and roundabout,” Stocks says.

The company then applies for a transport permit detailing the finalised route with the equipment and load dimensions to the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR), Australia’s independent heavy vehicle regulator.

Once the permit is approved, NHVR sends special amendments such as traffic control measures and bridge slow-down signs to assist with safety precautions during the transport.

NVC Precast works closely with the client representatives, transport providers and pilots to coordinate the delivery within the client’s scheduled delivery requirements on site, ensuring that the product has met all the specifications for transport including concrete strength and curing time. Clear and effective communication is critical for the successful coordination of each delivery with site contacts and organisation working within strict regulations and deadlines.

And finally, once NVC Precast has got the green light, the transport teams can finally move the beams.

“For every load transported on this project, we had four pilot vehicles and one steerer,” Stocks says. “The pilot vehicles function as a warning system to the public, and alert pedestrians, oncoming traffic and motorists of the oversized load. “ Signs and warning lights are used to notify road users of the large, transported item.

“Where possible, the pilots inform oncoming or overtaking vehicles by UHF radio of the load dimensions, location, direction of travel and other matters that may affect traffic,” Stocks says.

The pilots and steerers also provide rear and side view intel when the load impairs the truck driver’s line of sight.

“They work in tandem to assess and inform the driver of potential hazards and obstacles,” says Stocks.

This includes indicating load clearance from obstacles such as trees, and overhead infrastructure such as bridge railings. They may also limit the trucks speed and increase the strength of the load lashings as extra safety measures.

During transport to the site, the loads often must cross narrow bridges. The team halts traffic at both sides so that the trucks can pass through individually, averting any dangerous situations.

Given the size of these loads, it is of little surprise that transportation requires very specific machinery.

“Typically, ‘Super T’ concrete bridge beams within Australia are transported with the aid of a widening float or a platform trailer towed by the prime mover, with or without a dolly, depending upon both weight and length constraints,” says Stocks. “These are determined by the proposed travel route and any limitations as to the roads travelled.”

The front end of the bridge beam is typically chained to a bolster that is either on the float or platform. The back end is attached to a bookend bolster, which is then connected to a remotely operated steerable Jinker. A Jinker enables manoeuvring of the load from the back: a key part of the steerer’s job.

With the route consisting of many tight corners, turns and roundabouts along the way, the steerer’s job is most crucial.

The steerers assist the truck drivers by remotely controlling the back trailers, manoeuvring the load through tricky areas.

This allows the truck driver to focus on steering the prime mover and platform or lead trailer.

“The steerer works in concert with the prime mover driver to safely negotiate these turns and obstacles while the pilots manage the traffic to allow for the load to complete its wide turn,” says Stocks. “It takes a great deal of confidence in each other’s abilities, and capabilities, to navigate these obstacles safely with both the driver and steerer constantly communicating about obstacles and positions to travel through and past these obstacles.”

With this gargantuan process just another day in the office for NVC Precast and the transportation teams, it is worth a moment of appreciation for what goes on behind the scenes, or should we say on the roads, to get these products safely to their destination.

“It would be quite a safe statement to say that without the certified pilots utilised on these movements, major infrastructure projects like these would be cost prohibitive and almost non-existent,” says Stocks. “The safety of the public would constantly be at much greater risk. Making the tight turns at intersections and through roundabouts would be impossible without them.”

For information on Stocks Pilots contact: enquiry@stockspilots.com.au For more information on NVC Precast visit www.nvcprecast.com.au Pilot vehicles functions as a warning system to the public.

roadsonline.com.au

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SAFE INLINE BLENDING OF

CUTTERS WITH SAMI WITH BITUMEN TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST SAMI EVER EVOLVING AND REFINING THEIR PROCESSES, ITS PLANTS ACROSS QUEENSLAND, NEW SOUTH WALES AND VICTORIA ARE IN THE PROCESS OF UPGRADING TO MAKE INLINE BITUMEN CUTTING A SAFER PRACTICE. HERE’S HOW THEY DO IT.

I

NLINE BITUMEN CUTTING The process of mixing hydrocarbon cutters, such as kerosene, into hot binders to change the viscosity, comes with higher risks, especially when mixed on site.

Due to the cutters’ low flash point, it runs a risk of potential explosions or fire hazards to both the operators and workers and equipment on site.

“The main reasons we upgraded the plants was to reduce these risks in the field by blending the bitumen and cutters more accurately at our plant,” explains McKenzie. “This reduces risks to both construction crews and drivers, who require a special licence to transport these blended products as they are classified as dangerous goods.”

And, according to Richards, this change also improves the health and safety within SAMI’s plants.

At some locations, previous processes saw the cutters being brought to the loading bays in bulk containers where the truck drivers were then tasked with manually SAMI’s NSW plant.

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ROADS JUNE 2021

loading the bitumen into the truck under the preloaded bitumen.

The kerosene was then sucked from the bulk container into tankers beneath the bitumen for safety reasons.

“Also, if any stored cutters have moisture, this could result in the truck sucking wet kerosene into its tanker which could result in a boil over,” says Richards. “So now that we’re in the process of upgrading to an inline blending system, this removes the needs for the truck driver to do these highrisk jobs; instead, he can just pull up and we’ll simply load the product into his tank.”

With the new system of inline blending, both time and health savings are found, with the product’s quality increasing in accuracy with the use of mass flow meters.

THE PROCESS With works in the SAMI Victoria plant underway despite COVID disruptions, NSW’s plant is almost at the finish line.

Works at the NSW plant is expected to be completed in early June with the complete process taking just under three months.

But the road to safe cutting hasn’t come without challenges.

“One of the biggest issues we faced was getting new equipment into the plant,” says McKenzie. “We’re installing two new double skinned lay down tanks which is also an environmental upgrade.”

The function of the double skinned tanks is to ensure containment of the product with the second layer acting as a ‘safe area’ should there be a leak from the inner tank.

From there, explains McKenzie, an operator would regularly monitor the internal space to monitor for any signs of leakage.

“Besides facing the same issues with the tanks, we’ve also had to design a hazardous area around our existing loading gantry,” says Richards. “Because once you start

loading cutback bitumen, the zone turns into a hazardous area, which requires us to have procedures and equipment of the correct design in place to eliminate any possible sources of ignition in the area, along with the banning of items such as mobile phones, iPads and non-DG rated forklifts.”

For NSW’s plant, inline cutting isn’t the only plant upgrade. According to McKenzie, the plant’s main loading gantry is also under upgrade, which SAMI’s Queensland plant has also recently finished completion.

GANTRY LOADING With SAMI’s Queensland plant having already achieved inline blended cutter capability previously, their upgrade instead featured improvements in their gantry line. This work was completed in March this year.

“Our most popular grade is C170,” explains Stevens. “It makes up about 70 per cent of what we sell, and because of that we needed to increase our output of product.”

Previously, the Queensland plant could only load one C170 product per bay at a time, which according to Stevens, would sometimes cause trucks to wait longer than desirable for the customer.

“With the extra gantry line, it means truck drivers can actually line up in each bay and get the same product at the same time,” says Stevens. “This really helps reduce congestion and turn around our products for our clients in a more time efficient manner.”

According to Stevens, this is really where the biggest motivator was.

“We wanted to be able to produce and meet our clients’ demand, particularly during peak time,” explains Stevens. “The more vehicles we can get it and out of site, the more product we can get to our clients.”

ASPHALT NEWS

But building the line was not easy.

“The greatest challenge on our plant was the designing and planning,” says Stevens.

“Because there was a lot of new pipework, it took a lot of time to actually get the line installed from one end of the plant right out to the gantry.”

For Queensland’s upgrade, it wasn’t just the fabrication and the welding of the pipeline which offered a challenge.

“It had to be designed to fit within the existing plant so there were also challenges around the routing of the pipework and where it was located,” explains Stevens.

“With safety and practical concerns in mind, we also had to consider where to run the pipework allowing for the insulation and how it should run through the plant until it terminated at the gantry.”

The installation and execution of this upgrade had to also be completed with minimal interruption to the operation.

Maintaining ongoing operations while undergoing these upgrades was also part of the juggling game all three faced, however, the benefits reach beyond the plant and its operators’ functioning.

GOING UP WITH THE UPGRADES Now the process has been simplified for both the drivers and construction site operators.

“With our new upgraded tanks, you

simply get the bitumen and the cutter, such as kerosene, from where it will flow through a pipeline and into a swirl mixer which will combine them together and then deliver it into the awaiting truck as one grade,” says McKenzie.

With the products co-mingling together in the pipeline on the plant, rather than at an exposed site with oxygen or ignition sources present, the primary safety and health hazards are reduced.

“And with increased road maintenance and safety funding coming from various COVID stimulus packages, it’s just starting to flow into the market, so that’s really added to the increased demand,” says McKenzie.

Alongside increased mandating of cutters in certain construction areas, SAMI’s client base has now expanded with the pre-mixed bitumen catering to more safety conscious clients.

The new Western Sydney airport, which is currently under construction, is just one project representing the increased demand for pre-cut bitumen. With SAMI’s NSW plant supplying our parent company Colas with AMC7 bitumen, where they have sprayed over 500,000 square metres of bitumen.

“Having this pre-blended bitumen will enable construction crews at the airport to spray a lot quicker and more efficiently

on site,” says McKenzie. “Whereas before they’d have to bring a bitumen trailer on site and continuously load the bitumen, then mix the kerosene, circulate and spray, now they can load it straight into the sprayer and go.”

“It’s essentially removing the circulation process on site,” explains Richards. “For each blend that is made, it must be circulated for 30 minutes. Using this estimation, we can save our clients up to two hours of loading and blending time per day.”

FUTURE With SAMI taking safety seriously, the plant upgrades are just one example of the team’s commitment to improve safety for its employees, customers and drivers.

“This will really help offer pre blended products on demand to our customers,” adds McKenzie. “It is not only safer through reduced risks during loading, but it is also more environmentally friendly as it reduces the risk of spillage and contamination onsite.”

“We are very active at SAMI in the sustainability field, and this is just one more string to the bow of the products we can offer,” says Richards. “SAMI’s strength is in innovation and part of this is upgrading and refining the way we complete our operations.”

Pre-blended bitumen has simplified the process for both drivers and construction site operators.

roadsonline.com.au

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PROVIDING INDIGENOUS

PATHWAYS

THE CENTRAL COAST ACADEMY OF SPORT (CCAS), IN PARTNERSHIP WITH UNDERWRITING AGENCIES AUSTRALIA (UAA), HAS DEVELOPED THE INDIGENOUS TALENT IDENTIFICATION PROGRAM FOR ATHLETES OF ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER DESCENT. THE PROGRAM IS DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE AND PROVIDE ASSISTANCE IN ADVANCING OPPORTUNITIES IN SPORT.

F

or five years, UAA has been sponsoring the program, which aims to create pathways for indigenous children who may not have had the opportunity to get scholarships into the Academies of Sport.

A Talent Identification Day is held at the academies where 22 athletes are selected from a pool of over a hundred athletes for full scholarships. These scholarships are funded by the UAA and ensures the students receive the best coaching in their chosen sport.

It is a program that Michael ‘Murf’ Murphy, UAA group chief executive officer, is passionate about.

A key element of the sports program is also encouraging its students to further their education. To do so, the UAA also provides work internships for students in year eleven or twelve.

“Let’s say they want to study UAA has sponsored the program for five years.

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ROADS JUNE 2021

Scholarships are funded by the UAA who ensures the students receive the best coaching..

Construction Management at the University of Newcastle, UAA will provide the individual an internship, during the scholarship, which will avoid them racking up a huge Hex debt or avoid working at a fast-food outlet at the weekends. This will enable them to get work experience while continue with their sporting endeavours,” said Murphy. “The internship will enable them to see the ‘real world’, for example, when they visit a construction site and can see firsthand what things look like when they’ve gone wrong.”

One of the major reasons for UAA’s support is that they write a significant amount of its business in Regional Australia.

“As part of our charter, we have always had the best interests of youth, particularly dis-affected youth, and we saw this as a way of giving back to Regional Australia and to our First Nations People.

“We are confident that we will also be introducing the program with the North Coast Academy of Sport, which is in the Kempsey and Coffs Harbour region, the Western Academy of Sport which covers Bathurst, Orange and Dubbo. This is a key region for us because we cover so much equipment in this area and we will also be working with the Southern Academy of Sport which is the Wagga region,” said Murphy.

“Our Brisbane and Western Australian offices have both agreed to take on indigenous interns as well. One of the issues facing us with the program is longevity, we are concerned that some of the interns will lose enthusiasm for the program and dropout.”

Murphy goes on to describe how the Talent Identification Day works and how talented youngsters are spotted.

According to Murphy, the Talent

SAFETY

Identification Day is attended by over 100 youngsters from surrounding schools in the given region. These sporting youngsters have been identified by their Aboriginal Liaison Officers who encourage them to attend. To attend, the youngsters must have parental permission and be attending school.

“On the day, there are a number of stations which focus on the different sports offered in the program and at each of these stations there is an expert on the sport. The Sydney Swans, for example, will be present at the AFL station and each of the experts will identify the talent, both boys and girls. The twentytwo scholarships are then given to these chosen athletes,” said Murphy.

Murphy is passionate about the reasons for wanting to get involved in the program.

“We all see the missed opportunities with today’s youth and there are lots of people with good hearts and best intentions but unless you get in and have a go, best intentions don’t amount to much and nothing will change. ‘Creating Pathways’ for our youth is today’s term and it’s true, they need to be able to see what steps they need to take. We are not just talking about indigenous youth here, we are talking about all youth.

“On the Central Coast for example, and in Australia in general we have one of the highest suicide rates in the world for young men between 18 and 25. Why? Because they can’t see where they are headed. They’ve dropped out of school so they are poorly educated, they can’t get a job and they don’t have a car, what chance do they have? Some people need a little more guidance than others,” he said.

The Regional Academies of Sport is an event where all the academies across NSW come together and compete against each other.

Talent Identification Days are held at the academies where 22 athletes are identified from a total of more than 100.

Ian ‘Moose’ Robilliard is the Managing Director for the CCAS. He has been awarded an OAM for his work, predominantly in sport and youth sport in particular. With Murf and Moose having previously played rugby together, both understood the lessons sports could provide.

According to Murf, the internship concept came when they were sitting around one night. With Murf having the funds and passion and Moose having the facilities and know-how, UAA was firmly involved from the get-go.

“The various academy of sports are independent run, this allows for incredible flexibility and speed to adjust a program if required” said Murphy.

“In late April the Regional Academies of Sport (RAS) staged the Your Local Clubs Academy Games, an event where all the academies across NSW come together and compete against each other in a

‘mini-Olympics’ style event. The other academies were there, they’d heard about the program and were all keen to be involved,” he said.

According to Ian Robilliard, the Chairman of the Regional Academies of Sport and Managing Director of the Central Coast Academy, the RAS network is very unique in its reach with currently nine independently operated organisations forming part of the collective.

“Many organisations think Regional Academies of Sport are totally driven around the delivery of sporting programs and while that’s important, we also do much more than that. Indeed, the RAS ‘More Than Sport Strategy’ provides a very clear focus on what is possible outside of our sport programs that help deliver work ready young adults across regional NSW.” Regions from Albury to Coffs Harbour to Tamworths and beyond will benefit from UAA’s commitment to the Regional Academy network.

“We know a number of the crane owners identify as being indigenous, so we will be encouraging students to study construction, engineering or business management. This will provide a practical understanding of how our insurance business works in these industry sectors.

“We all know sectors of the construction industry are facing the difficulties of an ageing population and over the next five to ten years we are going to see an awful lot of experience lost as a large percentage of the work force moves into retirement. We hope this program will help generate new blood for the industry,” said Murphy. roadsonline.com.au

45

EVENTS

THE VICTORIAN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURECONFERENCE WITH THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT INVESTING MORE THAN $80 BILLION IN STATE TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE, A LANDSLIDE OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND ROAD PROJECTS ARE UNDERWAY WITH THOUSANDS OF JOBS, AND NEW INFRASTRUCTURE, ON THE RISE.

T

aking place on June 16-17, 2021 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Victorian Transport Infrastructure Conference will focus on industry developments and expansions from metro and regional rail upgrades to highway developments and port expansions like the Metro tunnel.

Returning for its 12th year, the Victorian Transport Infrastructure Conference provides a platform for key industry decision makers and stakeholders across the transport sector to come together and exchange knowledge.

According to Expotrade, the organisers behind the event, over 250 delegates attend annually, with 78 per cent of attendees estimated to be either decision makers or influencers.

The event is significant for its ability to create connections, foster learning and to engage with and watch topical discussion related to current infrastructure needs. It will provide attendees with project information and potential work opportunities from the events.

Jacinta Allan, Minister for Transport Infrastructure and Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, will deliver a welcome address on June 17, discussing the project pipeline for Victoria with a particular focus on the Suburban Rail Loop project.

The CEO of Infrastructure Victoria, Dr Jonathan Spear, will address the areas in Melbourne’s transport network that pose 46

ROADS JUNE 2021

Jonathon Spear, CEO of Infrastructure Victoria.

potential problems as well as the benefits and drawbacks of a paid usage schemes and networking pricing.

From there, topics such as project planning and strategic transport development will be discussed across the two days with speakers from the Metro Tunnel project as well as the Regional Revival program presenting details and future plans. The North East Rail Line’s upgrade, which falls under the multimillion-dollar Inland Rail Project, will be discussed with a focus on its timeline, expected benefits and latest news.

With panels discussing a variety of issues related to key transport infrastructure projects, guests will listen to matters from the complexities of population growth to the role of communities in infrastructure projects. Prioritisation of infrastructure projects based on cost and environmental

Jacinta Allan, Minister for Transport Infrastructure and Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop.

and economic factors will be another topic of discussion.

The effects of COVID on the infrastructure sector will also be discussed, with examination of the federal government’s $328 million Building Works package that was allocated towards roads, public transport and jetties. This will be presented by Graham Currie, professor of Transport Engineering from the Monash University and William McDougall, an independent transport planner for Victoria.

Projects such as the Melbourne West Gate Tunnel, the Monash Freeway Upgrade and Geelong’s Fast Rail Link and more will be explored.

For more information, please visit: vicinfrastructure.com.au

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