Inspired Alliance on the West Gate Freeway
- The Alliance delivered the project four-and-a half months ahead of schedule
- The financial success of the project was demonstrated by the works being delivered for less than the Target Outturn Cost
- Excellence in quality resulted in the outstanding achievement of maintaining rework at less than 0.2% of the total project cost, which is considerably below industry standard
- Smart planning required only six of the 16 originally planned full freeway closures. No full freeway closures were required to install the 326 beams used in new bridge construction
Upgrading the West Gate Freeway has rejuvenated Melbourne’s transport spine by providing a safe, free-flowing and inspiring journey for commuters. The project was completed more than four months ahead of schedule and within budget.
The $600 million upgrade was part of the largest state-funded road project in Victoria’s history. More than 160,000 vehicles pass through this section of freeway every day. It is an intense traffic environment, which had limited construction access and thousands of directly-affected stakeholders.
Extensive changes to the concept design resulted in significant improvements in functionality. The redesign improved travel times and delivered a 26 per cent increase in traffic capacity compared to the concept design. A key innovation was to revise the layout of the Montague Street interchange to a single point urban diamond, providing 30 per cent more traffic movement and capacity for traffic to queue safely.
Following the staged ramp openings in October 2009, travel speeds on the West Gate Freeway improved by an average of 20km an hour in the westbound direction and 10km an hour in the eastbound direction during peak travel times.
New VicRoads environmental specifications have also benchmarked the project’s sustainable initiatives as the new standard. The Alliance set out to monitor and minimise the project’s carbon footprint from the early planning stages. Key to this was maximising the reuse of waste products generated and using low embodied energy products.
Contaminated soil, where assessed as not posing a public risk, was turned into urban design mounds, adding to the visual amenity of the project. It also avoided using 87,000m3 of landfill space, eliminating more than 12,000 truck movements on public roads and reducing fuel consumption by about 11,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
This inspired Alliance exemplified what is possible when a team focuses on delivering an exceptional outcome.
