Newell Highway Program Alliance
About the project
Ultimately, 38 overtaking lanes (approximately 60 kilometres of new overtaking opportunities) and six additional safety improvement projects (21 kilometres worth) were delivered in five years, improving safety for road users and saving approximately 33 minutes in travel time along the length of the highway.
The innovative delivery model led to the following outcomes:
- improved safety
- reduction of travel times
- more accurate travel planning
- community acceptance of road freight to support the adoption of higher productivity vehicles (up to PBS 3A)
- improved freight efficiency
- maintenance and improvement of asset conditions.
Outcomes
Safety: the project recorded just one lost time injury (LTI) and two recordable incidents during construction, with almost 1.2 million hours worked across the five year program. This represents a total recordable injury frequency rate (TRIFR) of 2.5.
Journey management: minimised disruption to road user journey times by maintaining two lane, two-way traffic for an overall average of 88% during construction periods, and two lane, two-way 80km/h reduced speed limit traffic outside of construction periods across the program.
Environmental: reduced the use of potable water to less than 5% of the total construction water used on the project, minimising the impacts on community water supplies, particularly during the drought in 2019 and 2020.
Regional benefits: Aboriginal Participation in Construction (APiC) expenditure at completion was approximately 8% of the overall program expenditure and over 10% of construction expenditure, exceeding the minimum requirements of 1.5% by over 650%.
Procurement: award of multiple material supply and subcontractor packages to 15 Supply Nation registered Aboriginal owned businesses including three traffic control contractors which supplied all the traffic control for the program. The NHPA achieved approximately 10% ($22+ million) of total construction expenditure being direct or indirect Indigenous expenditure.
“The NHPA displayed its flexibility as it navigated challenges while securing additional federal funding opportunities, including for road safety upgrades and additional overtaking lanes.
Despite facing many significant external challenges and operating in a high inflationary environment post-COVID, the NHPA successfully completed 38 overtaking lanes and 20 kilometres of road safety improvements, whilst remaining approximately $6 million under the final budget.”
Alistair Lunn, Regional Director West, Transport for NSW
Awards
Civil Contractors Federation NSW | Earth Award | Project value $150+ million