Smaller contractors wanted for Melbourne’s North East Link project

Australia’s Victoria state government has moved to ensure smaller contractors get a share of the US$12 billion worth of Melbourne city’s North East Link contracts. According to a report in the Australian Financial Review, Victoria state treasurer Tim Pallas said that consortiums bidding for North East Link could not include more than one of the top three local contractors. This is to encourage more international companies and smaller Australian contractors to tender for the proposed 26km project.
September 27, 2018 Read time: 3 mins
Australia’s Victoria state government has moved to ensure smaller contractors get a share of the US$12 billion worth of Melbourne city’s North East Link contracts.


According to a report in the Australian Financial Review, Victoria state treasurer Tim Pallas said that consortiums bidding for North East Link could not include more than one of the top three local contractors. This is to encourage more international companies and smaller Australian contractors to tender for the proposed 26km project.

Acciona of Spain reportedly welcomed the government’s move. The Financial Review noted that Lendlease is the only remaining large contractor in Australia. CIMIC is owned by the Spanish Grupo ACS and John Holland by China Communications Construction Company.

Construction is scheduled to start in 2020 with the road opening in 2027.

The government has call the North East Link project the “the missing link in Melbourne’s freeway network” and will boost capacity of the city’s Eastern Freeway. It was December 2016 that the state government announced it would construct a road to connect the Metropolitan Ring Road and the Eastern Freeway under a public-private partnership deal.

The project will see the Eastern Freeway grow to more than 20 lanes at its widest point, a recent report in The Age newspaper said. In addition to the 14 carriageway lanes that will flow through Doncaster and Balwyn North there will be four emergency lanes and two bus lanes. North East Link will deliver Victoria’s longest road tunnels: three-lane twin tunnels travelling for 5km underground.

To ensure that contractors have the required tunnelling skills, the state government’s project team announced the intention to create “an Australian-first tunnelling training centre” near Melbourne. “The centre will train thousands of local workers to deliver tunnel projects in Victoria - including the North East Link,” according to a written statement.

The $11.5 million Victorian Tunnelling Centre will be built at Holmesglen Institute’s Chadstone campus to train and skill local workers in underground construction and tunnelling. It will include a replica tunnel with a full-height entrance, three multi-purpose engineering workrooms and training facilities including tunnel shaft and concrete lining spray simulators, as well as virtual reality experiences.

Holmesglen Institute will offer certificate and diploma qualifications as well as safety  training for working underground. By 2021, it is estimated up to 5,000 students will participate in training courses at the centre annually.

The centre, which is modelled on the successful Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy established as part of London’s Crossrail city transportation project, will open next year.

German TBM manufacturer Herrenknecht – which is building the six TBMs for the West Gate Tunnel and Metro Tunnel projects - will open an office in Melbourne. A key part of their work will be on how the TBMs can be reused and recycled and put to work on Victoria’s other major tunnelling projects into the future.

Finance & Funding

Related Content

  • Modern road system is 'a must'
    August 2, 2012
    Australia's GDP could see a major increase if traffic bottlenecks in big cities were to be removed, and the government is addressing this as a matter of urgency A modern road system is a must in Australia where it is estimated that the removal of traffic bottlenecks could potentially raise the country's GDP by 0.8%. According to the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), which made the prediction, infrastructure bottlenecks (particularly in cities, which account for over 70% of the country'
    Read More
  • Work for Melbourne’s major tunnel project restarts
    March 12, 2018
    Construction work is restarting on Melbourne’s West Gate tunnel project. Construction of the tolled tunnel link is costing US$5.2 billion (A$6.7 billion). The project is controversial and has met with considerable political opposition in Australia. Those against the link say that building a second river crossing is not necessary and that it will merely increase travel costs for drivers as it will be tolled. However those in favour of the link say that it is required due to the heavy traffic congestion. A
    Read More
  • Upgrade work for Melbourne’s urban roads
    February 25, 2019
    Improvements and upgrades will be carried out key routes in the west of Melbourne. The Australian city will benefit from US$1.27 billion (A$1.8 billion) of work, which includes boosting capacity on eight key routes. The road sections that will be upgraded include the Duncans Road interchange, the Forsyth Road interchange, Dohertys Road, Palmers Road, Derrimut Road and Dunnings Road. Bridge improvements will allow heavier trucks to use certain routes, including Geelong Road, Hyde Street and Ballarat Road. T
    Read More
  • Belarus opts for a PPP road scheme
    August 12, 2019
    Belarus has started pre-qualification for what will be the country’s first public-private partnership – the M-10 motorway upgrade. David Arminas reports "There’s a little bit of almost everything in this project,” said Steve Gilpin, technical team leader and associate of engineers Ove Arup & Partners International. True to his word, there is. That was how Gilpin kicked off his presentation about Belarus’s planned M-10 motorway project to 180 international bankers, private investors, contractors and en
    Read More

Highlighted Content