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

  • Video developments in automatic incident detection
    May 22, 2012
    David Crawford reviews technological progress with automatic incident detection Highway safety problems are likely to intensify given recent predictions of future traffic growth across the world. In the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that currently over 30,000 deaths and 1.5 million injuries occur as the result of accidents on the nation’s roads each year. These figures will increase with the number of kilometres travelled each year in the US expected to gr
  • TransCore to design and build I-66 active traffic management system
    February 15, 2013
    One of the most congested interstates in Virginia, US, is to get an Active Traffic Management (ATM) system. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has selected TransCore, a division of Roper Industries, to design and build its I-66 ATM system on northern Virginia’s main highway into the District of Columbia. The US$34 million contract is 90 percent federally funded and will support thirty-four miles of highway from the District of Columbia to Gainesville US-29 in Prince William County. The projec
  • Active traffic management increases safety and capacity
    February 2, 2012
    WSDOT is deploying Active Traffic Management in order to increase safety and capacity on its strategic roads. WSDOT's Patricia Michaud elaborates
  • Balfour Beatty consortium preferred bidder for Aberdeen road project
    June 13, 2014
    The Connect Roads consortium, comprising Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Galliford Try, has been selected as preferred bidder for the design, build, finance and operate (DBFO) contract to deliver the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie-Tipperty project for Transport Scotland in partnership with Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils. Balfour Beatty will invest up to US$34 million, which represents a one third share of the sponsor’s investment requirement, with Carillion and Galliford Try also inv