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

  • Lindsay and Nexco reflect on the value of IRF’s global industry network
    October 18, 2016
    In 2015, Nexco East introduced a moveable barrier system in Japan, creating safer work zones along the Joban Expressway, north of Tokyo. Two of the main actors behind this project look back at how it came to life and the role of IRF. Masato Matsumoto: I graduated in 2006 from the IRF Fellowship Programme. As a young professional, becoming an IRF Fellow was a life-changing opportunity. It allowed me to meet industry executives from around world and start building a professional network. Armed with this expe
  • Norwegian tunnel incident provokes criticism
    March 16, 2015
    Controversy has arisen with regard to a Norwegian tunnel incident in 2013. A fire broke out in the Gudvanga Tunnel and resulted in 67 vehicle occupants being trapped, with 28 having to receive treatment for smoke inhalation. Norway’s Accident Investigation Board (Statens havarikommisjon) has criticised the National Road Administration (Statens vegvesen) over the incident. According to Statens havarikommisjon, there was insufficient information provided to those people in the tunnel at the time of the incide
  • ENH bitumen in-line plants destined for the Congo
    May 19, 2015
    ENH Engineering has broken into the market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo by selling two in-line bitumen emulsion plants. The plants, of which each can be built into a 12m container, were sold to the Congolese oil exploration and refining company Socir in the capital city of Kinshasha, said ENH's managing director Erik Haugaard. The in-line plants can produce all known bitumen emulsion types, from the simplest tack-coat to high-grade slurry emulsions. "The emulsion market in West Africa is gr
  • Two key Australian highway links underway
    May 28, 2012
    Two key highway upgrades will be carried out in Australia by Valemus, a subsidiary of German construction firm Bilfinger Berger. In total the work is worth some US$219.4 million. Valemus is building a section of the Pacific Highway in New South Wales. This 8.6km four-lane road forms a bypass around Bulahdelah and is the final link in the southern section of this highway.