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

  • July 26, 2013
    Qatar invests $70 billion to pave the way to world beating transportation
    Eng. Zeina Nazer looks at what Qatar’s recently-announced investment in transport infrastructure will mean on the ground. Qatar is experiencing a rapid economic and industrial growth. This growth is characterised by a rapid population increase and by the urgent need towards the development of both infrastructure projects and major transport projects. In order to handle this rate of development within Qatar, Public Works Authority (Ashghal) is developing a fully-integrated multimodal transportation system in
  • February 14, 2017
    Parsons wins Engineering Excellence Grand Award
    US engineering services firm Parsons has received the 2017 Grand Award in the transportation category from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Missouri for the Columbia I 70 Bridges design build project. Parsons was the lead designer for this US$18 million project for the Missouri Department of Transportation, which involved replacing six deficient bridges with five new weathering steel plate girder bridges while accommodating 80,000+ vehicles per day on the road. Built in 1957, the existing
  • August 5, 2013
    Travel times halve for tolling converts
    The Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver is a prime example of how the latest ITS systems enable new infrastructures to be built and paid for while still providing additional user benefits. Vancouver has 2.2 million inhabitants and, like so many major cities, is divided into two by a river, the Frazer river. This combination makes Vancouver the second most congested city in North America and the most congested in Canada. Through the middle of the city runs the Trans-Canadian Highway 1 which crosses the Frazer Riv
  • November 1, 2013
    Section of M6 motorway to be made ‘smart’
    A section of the M6 motorway in the UK between junctions 10a and 13 is to be upgraded to a smart (managed) motorway with all-lane running. This section of the motorway is a major strategic route, carrying around 120,000 vehicles per day.