Transforming a dangerous intersection wins industry award
Boral has been recognised for its asphalt expertise and contribution to dramatically changing a Central Victorian intersection that has been the site of fatal accidents and serious collisions.
Boral received the Australian Asphalt Pavement Association’s Victorian Outstanding Project of the Year Award for the Ravenswood Interchange on the Calder Highway near Bendigo, 140 kilometres north-west of Melbourne.
The award honours construction excellence, quality outcomes, innovation, technical complexity, interaction with the client and the on-site team, and improvements in design, processes and products used.
The Ravenswood Interchange is Victoria’s first circular road. The road design vastly improves navigating the options of exiting and entering the Calder Highway and Alternative Calder Highway and local roads.
Boral’s Southern Region General Manager - Asphalt, Tim Oudenryn, said the works required good communication between Boral and client CPB Contractors to limit congestion in work areas while managing live traffic travelling in altered lanes.
Tim said the project’s primary challenge was a change of pavement design and the subsequent requirement to ensure available resources.
The project was initially planned as a predominantly granular pavement with spray seal surfacing and 10,000 tonnes of asphalt through intersections. However, due to the project’s timing requirement’s the pavement design was changed to be deep lift with more than 40,000 tonnes of asphalt.
“Once the pavement design was changed this became a very challenging project to manage with the traffic requirements on such a busy highway,” Tim said. “This required significantly more interaction and communication with both CPB and VicRoads. However, this extra planning and effort produced a great outcome for all stakeholders.”
“The Bendigo asphalting crew did a great job,” Tim said. “It is a large and difficult project for a regional crew to complete and they did a wonderful job, especially when it was a small job that grew into something much bigger because of a change in specification.”
The project started in May 2016 and was completed in mid-2018.
Boral also won AAPA Victoria’s Outstanding Project of the Year in 2017 for the Bolte Bridge resurfacing works in Melbourne.