PB role: detailed engineering design; environmental approvals and management; community consultation; on-site geotechnical and geological approvals; on-site design to resolve site issues
PB, Thiess and the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) formed an alliance to deliver, by the end of 2009, the Coopernook to Herons Creek Pacific Highway Upgrade — a 32 km section of the Pacific Highway on NSW’s mid-north coast.
The Coopernook to Herons Creek Alliance project, which forms part of the Pacific Highway Upgrade Program, is providing 32.7 km of high-standard four-lane dual carriageway between Coopernook and Herons Creek on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. The project includes fauna underpasses and fauna fencing, noise barriers, 20 km of service and access roads, 35 km of safety barriers, and 15 new bridges, including two incrementally launched box girder bridges; it requires 2.5 million cubic metres of bulk earthworks.
Constrained in many places by boundaries, the existing highway and complex geological conditions, the new alignment required extensive traffic management and staging, and deviations around the villages of Moorland, Johns River and Kew.
The road design was revised from the initial RTA concept so as to incorporate a strategy for minimising direct access onto the highway and facilitating a possible future widening; it includes:
The design was developed within the requirements of the planning approvals and with significant input from the environmental agencies.