Skip to main content

Transurban announces preferred contractor for NorthConnex

Melbourne-based toll-road operator Transurban Group has announced that the consortium Lend Lease Bouygues is set to design and build the Sydney, Australia, NorthConnex tunnel link between the M1 and M2 motorways in the city’s northwest. The nine kilometre, 80 km/h tolled link involves two motorway tunnels, built with a three lane capacity for future growth but initially marked for two lanes each way. It provides the missing link in the National Highway Network and offers a safe and more efficient way of
March 18, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Melbourne-based Toll-road operator 600 Transurban Group has announced that the consortium Lend Lease Bouygues is set to design and build the Sydney, Australia, NorthConnex tunnel link between the M1 and M2 motorways in the city’s northwest.

The nine kilometre, 80 km/h tolled link involves two motorway tunnels, built with a three lane capacity for future growth but initially marked for two lanes each way.  It provides the missing link in the National Highway Network and offers a safe and more efficient way of moving freight from Sydney’s north-west and upper north shore and connects the Sydney orbital motorway to the M1 Pacific Motorway, the Central Coast and the north.

The tunnel design features a clearance height of 5.3 metres, higher than any other tunnel to minimise the likelihood overhead impacts.

Transurban approached the New South Wales Government in 2012 under the Government’s unsolicited proposal regime to design, build, operate and finance the link. In May last year the proposal moved to stage three which involved negotiating and submitting a final binding offer. With the announcement the project moves into the planning approval stage with the public display of the Environmental Impact Assessment.

If approved work on NorthConnex would expect to begin in 2015 with the project open for use in 2019.

Transurban’s Chief Executive Officer, Scott Charlton, said: “We have gone through a unique and innovative competitive tender process to select Lend Lease Bouygues as the design and construction contractor. The twin tunnels will provide significant travel time savings for commuters and the freight network benefiting the NSW and Australian economies.”

The Australian and New South Wales governments will each invest as much as US$367 million, with Toll charges funding the rest, a statement from the state government said.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • UK Spending Review ‘increases capital investment in transport by 50%’
    November 26, 2015
    UK Chancellor George Osborne announced major investments in transport in the government’s Spending Review and Autumn Statement, despite a 37 per cent cut in the Department for Transport’s (DfT) operational budget. This was offset with a planned 50% per cent increase in capital expenditure for the DfT - rising to a total of US$92 billion. In addition to protecting overall police spending in line with inflation, an increase of US$1.3 billion by 2019-20, the review includes US$70 billion capital investment
  • OCTA seeks proposals from three teams for I-405 freeway project
    March 31, 2016
    The Orange County Transportation Authority, California, is seeking proposals from a shortlist of firms for the design and construction of the I-405 Improvement Project, an important step toward building a better freeway that is intended to improve travel times for those driving the corridor between Costa Mesa and the Los Angeles County line. The OCTA Board of Directors has unanimously approved the criteria for selecting a firm to design and build the freeway improvements and approved issuing the final re
  • Appeals against HS2 unanimously dismissed
    January 22, 2014
    The UK Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed the appeals against the HS2 high speed rail line. Following a Court of Appeal ruling in which the government won on all seven areas of challenge, the Court of Appeal gave permission to appeal to the Supreme Court on two grounds: the claim that the government was required to comply with the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive, and failed to do so (this ground was led by HS2 Action Alliance, and supported by the Local Authorities and Heathrow Hu
  • Australia's ground breaking average speed enforcement
    February 1, 2012
    The speed enforcement system on the Hume Highway in Australia combines both spot and point-to-point solutions. Here, Redflex's Peter Whyte discusses its implementation. The Australian State of Victoria has achieved notable success in reducing casualty rates since launching a three-pronged road accident prevention initiative in the late-1980s.