Skip to main content

Kapsch secures deal for Westgate Tunnel tolling roadside systems

Kapsch TrafficCom Australia will deliver the tolling roadside system for the West Gate Tunnel Project under construction in Melbourne, Australia. Kapsch TrafficCom Australia was contracted by CPB Contractors John Holland Joint Venture to deliver the technology. It will be based upon the company’s single gantry multilane free-flow platform and next-generation stereoscopic vision technology for both vehicle detection and classification as well as automatic number plate recognition. “Almost 20 years ago Kaps
June 4, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
Kapsch TrafficCom Australia will deliver the tolling roadside system for the West Gate Tunnel Project under construction in Melbourne, Australia.


259 Kapsch TrafficCom Australia was contracted by CPB Contractors 4755 John Holland Joint Venture to deliver the technology. It will be based upon the company’s single gantry multilane free-flow platform and next-generation stereoscopic vision technology for both vehicle detection and classification as well as automatic number plate recognition.

“Almost 20 years ago Kapsch delivered the world’s first multilane free flow tolling system in Australia,” said André Laux, chief operating officer at Kapsch TrafficCom, based in Vienna, Austria, and which has subsidiaries and branches in more than 30 countries.

The 5km West Gate Tunnel - to be open in 2022 - will deliver an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, providing a second river crossing and removing thousands of trucks from residential streets. Originally called the Western Distributor, it will link the West Gate Freeway at Yarraville with CityLink at Docklands via a tunnel beneath Yarraville.

Meanwhile, the first of the two tunnel boring machines will soon arrive in Melbourne, according to the state government. A steel frame is going up for the 90m x 180m spoil shed at the Yarraville tunnelling site. Work continues at the northern portal to build the tunnel entrance and where the two TBMs will be launched.

The TBMs will be 90m long, weighing up to 4,000tonnes each and standing 15.6m in diameter. It will be the first time a full-scale TBM has been used in Victoria. Two huge retaining walls have been built either side of the tunnel site, with around 1,000 support columns driven into the ground to help keep workers safe on site.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Major investment in Australia’s transport infrastructure
    June 5, 2015
    A joint venture featuring John Holland, Samsung C&T and Leighton Contractors (Leighton) has secured a deal to build and design Sydney’s M4 East motorway. The M4 East forms part of a project to build the WestConnex road tunnel, completion of which is expected in 2023. The M4 East is planned to be ready in 2019, while the WestConnex road tunnel is the biggest transport infrastructure of its kind in Australia. The deal won by the joint venture partners is valued at US$2.1 billion. The WestConnex project is pla
  • TBMs cut routes through Wuxi
    May 29, 2013
    Often used in road construction in China, eight Herrenknecht tunnel boring machines (TBMs) have now excavated almost 16km of tunnel in 20 months. The machines mastered challenging tunnelling stretches with small overburdens, crossing beneath the emerging metropolis of Wuxi, eastern China, to excavate the first two metro lines in the 3,000-year-old town on Taihu Lake, near Shanghai. Lines 1 and 2, with a total length of 58.5km, are expected to start operation in 2014. A total of five metro lines are planned.
  • Melbourne picks PPP deal for roads between Werribee and Footscray
    November 14, 2016
    The Australian city of Melbourne has laid out plans for a US$1.4 billion public-private partnership to revamp major city streets. Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and, with around 4.6 million people, the second most populous city in Australia. Some areas of Melbourne are growing by up to 6% a year. More than 700km of suburban roads will be upgraded by 2022 as part of the 20-year construction and maintenance package, said state premier Daniel Andrews. Eight h
  • Italy road tunnel project excavated
    July 9, 2018
    Italy’s A3 Highway is being upgraded, which will improve transport between Salerno and Calabria. Upgrading Italy’s A3 highway is of prime importance for developing the south of the country and is a project that has been prioritised for construction. The A3 Salerno-Reggio-Calabria highway is a non-toll road managed by ANAS, Italy’s state-owned company that constructs and maintains highways. The route runs a total of 443km, with the road having originally been built between 1966 and 1974. However, the origina