Skip to main content

Highway upgrade features Australian first intersection design

A new interchange design to improve traffic management will be a key part of a major Queensland, Australia road project, with the contract awarded today for a US$712 million (AU$929.3 million) upgrade to the Bruce Highway between Caloundra Road and the Sunshine Motorway. Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester and Queensland Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey today announced a Fulton Hogan Seymour Whyte joint venture had won the contract for the project, which aims to ultimately reduce cong
September 22, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
A new interchange design to improve traffic management will be a key part of a major Queensland, Australia road project, with the contract awarded today for a US$712 million (AU$929.3 million) upgrade to the Bruce Highway between Caloundra Road and the Sunshine Motorway.

Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester and Queensland Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey today announced a Fulton Hogan Seymour Whyte joint venture had won the contract for the project, which aims to ultimately reduce congestion and travel time for motorists.

The project involves widening the highway to six lanes, as well a major upgrade to the Sunshine Motorway interchange and reconfiguring the Caloundra Road interchange to a diverging diamond interchange, in which the two directions of traffic on the non-freeway road cross to the opposite side on both sides of the bridge at the freeway. This is a first for Australia and could be used in future projects across the country, according to Darren Chester.

Chester said this intersection zone sees the most crashes on the Bruce Highway and it urgently needs a new approach to traffic management for the roughly 60,000 vehicles that use it every day.

Preliminary construction is anticipated to start by the end of 2016, with major construction expected to start in mid-2017 and be completed in 2020, weather permitting.

Related Content

  • Trans-Pennine road tunnel routes shortlisted, may include special lighting, caverns
    August 19, 2016
    Five routes have been shortlisted for the Trans-Pennine tunnel – the most ambitious road scheme undertaken in the UK in more than five decades. The Trans-Pennine tunnel study was launched by the government in autumn 2015, one of a number of studies aimed at addressing some of the biggest challenges facing the road network in the UK. The latest interim study shows the continued strong case for the tunnel which could provide safer, faster and more reliable journeys for motorists. All five routes join th
  • Will interoperability prevent progress?
    January 10, 2014
    David Crawford examines the political and industrial background to the tolling technology debate. Saving the US State of California ‘millions of dollars’ in tolling infrastructure costs by encouraging new technologies is the professed aim of a legislative Bill, SB 242, which is currently moving through the State’s Senate (upper house) process. According to its sponsor, Republican State Senator Mark Wyland, permitting alternatives to the current FasTrak-branded radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based sys
  • Transportation hub the centre of sustainable urban development
    November 21, 2012
    A marriage of transit, technology and culture is taking shape in Minneapolis, with ITS systems vital to hopes for a sustainable development centred on a hub of public transportation. Construction started in July this year on ‘The Interchange’ – a station in the Midwest US city of Minneapolis claimed as the most spectacular expression yet of the fast-spreading North American concept of transit-oriented development (TOD). Due for completion in 2014, the Interchange is designed as a multi-modal public transpor
  • Serco extends transport contracts in Hong Kong
    June 7, 2013
    UK group Serco has won the contract to operate and maintain toll roads in Hong Kong as it looks to push further into the transport sector. Beginning in September, the contract is worth US$123 million over a minimum six-year base period to manage, operate and maintain the Tsing Sha Control Area of toll roads. Serco has been contracted to engage in toll collection, controlling and regulating traffic, vehicle recovery and rescue, patrols and handling of incidents. The contract also covers scheduled works inclu