Skip to main content

GRAA focuses on winning project profile: Brisbane Airport Link, Northern Busway & Airport

The revolutionary AUD$4.8 billion Airport Link has delivered a landmark infrastructure project for Australia, tackling traffic congestion, enhancing the busway network and removing an infamous traffic bottleneck through an innovative and inspired design. The Airport Link in Brisbane, Australia included three separate projects – the Northern Busway (a 3km two-way dedicated busway), the Airport Roundabout Upgrade and the AirportlinkM7 (a 6.7km toll road including 5.2km of tunnel). Together, they represent the
May 19, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Parsons Brinckerhoff and Arup joint venture won the 2013 GRAA for Design
RSSThe revolutionary AUD$4.8 billion Airport Link has delivered a landmark infrastructure project for Australia, tackling traffic congestion, enhancing the busway network and removing an infamous traffic bottleneck through an innovative and inspired design.

The Airport Link in Brisbane, Australia included three separate projects – the Northern Busway (a 3km two-way dedicated busway), the Airport Roundabout Upgrade and the AirportlinkM7 (a 6.7km toll road including 5.2km of tunnel). Together, they represent the largest single investment in transport infrastructure ever undertaken in Australia. The project was delivered by the 2642 Thiess 4755 John Holland (TJH) joint venture with 2693 Parsons Brinckerhoff and 1419 Arup joint venture as the lead design partner, for the Queensland Government-appointed 2641 BrisConnections.

Parsons Brinckerhoff and Arup joined forces – as PBA – to provide technical input into the tender and to deliver the detailed design and construction phase services support. PBA engaged more than 1,000 staff, who worked more than one million hours from start-up in 2006 through to completion in July 2012. During that time PBA delivered more than 18,000 ‘for construction’ drawings in 600 packages with a Total of 3,600 submission cycles.

Aside from 15km of tunnel, the scheme boasts 25 bridges, 15 cut and cover structures, 8.5km of roadway, bicycle paths, 3.5ha of new parklands, more than one million new plants, three ventilation stations, and an operations control building.

The scale and complexity of the project, along with very tight constraints imposed by a highly-populated environment and the need to keep roads open, presented a formidable design challenge. These challenges required a range of technical innovations including underground road interchanges in caverns, the largest of which was 28m wide, and an innovative multilevel flyover with a fast-diamond interchange.

PBA’s scope of works included tunnel, road, geotechnical, electrical and mechanical, fire and life safety, structural and civil works design, as well as coordinating the urban design via subcontracted resources.

2014 GRAA Applications
The Global Road Achievement Awards (GRAA) is a one-of-a-kind competition to recognise innovative road projects and exemplary people that place the road industry at the forefront of worldwide social and economic development.
ENTRIES SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JUNE 30, 2014. More information at: www.irfnews.org/graa


For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • IRF traffic management training on investing smartly, deploying effectively
    December 19, 2014
    IRF delivers advanced traffic management training in Riyadh For the second in a series of ITS courses specially tailored for the needs of fast-transitioning economies, the IRF assembled a multi-national cast of renowned instructors who delivered five modules focusing on major mobility applications. Held from October 19th–22nd, 2014, the course was attended by over 170 transportation and engineering professionals from a wide array of public agencies, including the municipalities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, t
  • Brisbane’s Airport: Innovative Management of One of the World’s Busiest Runways
    June 26, 2014
    When it comes to runways, there are few busier then Brisbane’s main runway. Servicing both domestic and international travel, with over 200,000 movements per year, operating without a curfew Brisbane’s main runway is the busiest in Australia. For maintenance, crews only have a limited period of time to determine the pavement condition, normally during the night, making the detection of pavement faults difficult. To resolve this issue, a new high speed pavement scanner was used to rapidly survey the pavem
  • Mexico’s longest tunnel project being excavated
    July 18, 2017
    Congestion is particularly bad on the road from the city centre to Juan Álvarez international airport. Jams are frequent on the section of road between Acapulco Bay and the Diamante and Puerto Marques suburbs, which currently means climbing La Escénica. To tackle the problem the city authorities decided to build the new tunnel and bypass the traffic jams. The route of the 3.2km tunnel runs under the Cumbres de Llano Largo mountain. The contract for excavating the two tunnels was awarded to the Aca-Túnel con
  • The Government of India endorses the IRF Geneva World Meeting
    January 30, 2017
    The Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping of the Government of India, Mr Nitin Gadkari has issued a formal letter of support to the 18th IRF World Road Meeting to be held in New Delhi on 14-17 November 2017. Commending the efforts of IRF to further the cause of Road Safety in India and across the world, Mr. Gadkari said, “We, as a nation, are proud to be hosting the WRM 2017, one of the largest events in the infrastructure industry." “Efforts are also underway by my Ministry to hold a mee