By Lynda Myer
As the final major components of Australia’s largest road infrastructure project, WestConnex has been delivered by the Acciona Samsung Bouygues Joint Venture (ASBJV) two months ahead of schedule and it was opened previous week.
Connecting the M4 at Haberfield to the M8 at St Peters, the mega tunnels in Sydney with 7.5km length decrease journey times between Western Sydney and Sydney Airport by up to 40 minutes.
Also the date of commencing this project was August 2018.
The NSW Government in collaboration with the Commonwealth, which has contributed a A$1.5bn grant and a A$2bn concessional loan, has been delivered the M4 and M8 link, that is the third stage of the A$16.8bn WestConnex project.
The scheduled date for completion of final stage of WestConnex is after that the Rozelle Interchange opens later this year.
According to Federal infrastructure, transport, regional development and local government minister Catherine King: “The tunnels were constructed using more sustainable materials and energy-efficient technology, requiring less long-term maintenance. The project has also achieved key sustainability ratings, with around 8.7 million tons of spoil beneficially reused, including at the future Western Sydney International Airport site.”
Including education and employment, cultural awareness training, mentoring programs as well as the procurement of goods and services from Aboriginal businesses, the ASBJV invested over than A$60m in Aboriginal participation over the life of the project.
Additionally, development of female participation in the construction sector was one of its investment fields, as it employed one of the largest female workforces on a tunneling project in New South Wales.
Winning two awards for sustainability during the project, ASBJV works with engineering partners and contractors and the project team advanced a high-performance shotcrete specification. Considering the new shotcrete specification that reduced the embodied carbon, decreased shotcrete by 27,000m3 and reinforced steel fibers by 830 tons, creating an A$11m cost saving, the initiative won the American Shotcrete Association Project of the Year award as well as the Infrastructure Sustainability Council’s Excellence in Economic Outcomes Award.
Involving the newly awarded contract to design and construct stage two of Sydney’s Western Harbour Tunnel, currently Acciona is applying the legacy initiative and learnings to other projects.
