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 announces 2012 GRAA Winners
    October 15, 2012
    Organisations behind the Rio de Janeiro's RJ122 project; the Kosovo Motorway project; and New York City's State-of-the-Art ITS Infrastructure Deployment Program were among the winners of the International Road Federation’s (IRF) 2012 Global Road Achievement Awards (GRAA) competition. This year's awards, whose winners were announced by IRF chairman and mayor of Riyadh, H.E Abdullah A. Al-Mogbel, honour nine projects from countries across the globe, each leading the way in innovation and excellence in its res
  • Australia roads alliance
    April 16, 2012
    A huge infrastructure programme is being planned at present for the Australian state of Queensland With an annual growth rate of around 3.2%, Queensland is the fastest growing state in Australia and has been for over a decade. The State attracts an average of 1,500 new permanent residents each week, 1,000 of whom move to the South East corner.
  • Bentley’s Be Inspired Awards highlight innovation in software use
    January 6, 2015
    Innovation, from design to on-site execution, is alive and well, thanks to a good helping of software application. David Arminas reports from software developer Bentley’s annual global conference, held this year in London Successful project delivery is increasingly about hard men and women using software to get the job done and this year’s global conference in London by US-based software developer Bentley highlighted some innovative - and startling - examples. As usual, the Year in Infrastructure 2014
  • GRAA winner profile: urban cooling and active transportation in Los Angeles
    July 19, 2022
    The Urban Cooling + First/Last Mile Strategies in Los Angeles-Canoga Park Project explores resilient streetscape solutions that mitigate two critical planning issues impacting LA: extreme heat (“Urban Cooling”) and limited safe active transportation access (“First/Last Mile”).