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.
UTC

Related Content

  • January 15, 2014
    South west’s first smart motorway opens
    The first smart motorway scheme in the UK’s south west has been officially launched, covering seven miles of motorway around the Almondsbury interchange and including junctions 19-20 on the M4 and junctions 15-17 on the M5. It is designed to help reduce congestion and improve safety and journey times by introducing variable speed limits and opening the hard shoulder during busy traffic periods. The improvements to the M4 and M5 use a range of technologies and operational systems to reduce congestion and
  • June 12, 2015
    Safelane automates work zone perimeter guarding
    The safety of workers during road closures and working alongside, or above, live lanes is becoming an automated process. Ten workers suffered major injuries while working on or near motorways and major A roads in England in 2013, and between 2009 and 2013 eight had been killed. It was against that background that the first commercial application Safelane, the automated traffic management system designed to detect work zone incursions, was carried out during the temporary closure of a motorway.
  • December 19, 2013
    Funding approved for US Ohio River Bridges Project
    US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced a Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan for US$452 million to finance the Downtown Crossing section of the Louisville and Southern Indiana Ohio River Bridges Project. The cost of the Downtown Crossing, which Kentucky is funding, is around US$1.3 billion, and represents one half of the bi-state Ohio River Bridges project, which also includes the new East End Bridge, also spanning the Ohio River eight miles to the north
  • October 2, 2018
    Congestion pricing - no such thing as a free ride
    The widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles is likely to increase congestion, many experts believe. But Wes Guckert of Traffic Group believes that tolling could provide the answer. While it is still hard to wrap your head around the idea of getting into a vehicle without a driver, the industry is now used to hearing, reading, participating in the advancement of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Those in the industry have heard about Uber delivering a shipment of Budweiser, or the convoy of driverless trucks