Roads Australia
The release of national Census statistics and their impact on infrastructure planning has caught the attention of media in Victoria and Brisbane this week.
In Melbourne the Age said population expansion on the city’s fringes, and with it an increased reliance on cars, had cast doubts on State Government policies to contain urban sprawl and shift people onto public transport. Despite rising petrol prices and the Government’s focus on public transport, Victorian car ownership was up from 1.68 (2001) to 1.7 cars per household, the Age said.
In the Courier Mail, Premier Peter Beattie reassured Queenslanders that his Government’s infrastucture plan would be delivered despite the State’s dramatic population growth. The Census revealed the State’s population had grown 20 per cent in the past decade, compared to the national average of 11.9 per cent, the Mail said.
In other news, the SMH said the new owners of the Cross City Tunnel had yet to confirm whether the toll price would change. It was widely reported in the media last week that the Tunnel would be sold for $700m to a consortium led by ABN Amro. Leighton Contractors, which has taken a six per cent equity position, will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the tunnel.
The skills shortage and its impact on industry’s capacity to deliver key infrastructure projects drew the attention of the SMH last week. While the Herald’s story focussed on Sydney’s Victoria Road, it was more illuminating for its look at the broader shortage of engineers, drawing comments from building industry experts and the NSW Treasurer, Michael Costa, on the impact of skilled labour shortages.
In Melbourne the Herald Sun reported that all 26 country highway rail crossing in Victoria would get flashing early warning signs - along with another 27 other high traffic volume sites - as part of a $33.2m safety package in response to the recent Kerang incident.
The Australian Road Forum’s 2007 National Summit, held in Sydney last week, put the issue of road pricing firmly on the national agenda for public debate.
Road pricing in the context of congestion management, along with underfunding of road maintenance, skills shortages, the threat to road infrastructure posed by climate change, and the future of PPPs, were among the major issues discussed at the two-day Summit.
Sponsored by Hyder Consulting and ARRB Group, the 2007 Summit attracted almost 150 CEOs and senior managements representatives from around Australia and overseas.
In welcoming delegates, Australian Road Forum President, Ray Fisher, outlined the policy areas on which the ARF Board had recently agreed to focus its attention.
These are:
“These are significant issues on which we believe we can make a contribution - either directly through advancing ideas or indirectly by creating opportunities for informed debate,” Mr Fisher said.
“It would seem to me inevitable that we will manage road use in this country with some sort of price mechanism, as we do with every other public utility.
“The question is how. And in determining an answer, we have the benefit of learning from our colleagues overseas.”
The NSW Government has allocated a record $3.6 billion to road spending in 2007-08 - up $300 million.
A total of $1.5b has been allocated towards road construction and $933m to maintenance. Almost three quarters of the roads capital and maintenance program budget will be spent outside the Sydney metro area, with $2.6b - or 72 per cent - committed.
Key roads projects in this year’s budget include:
. $404m for the current three-year, $1.3b State/Federal Pacific Highway program;
. $56.5m to continue the $460m upgrade of the Great Western Highway;
. $300m to continue duplication of the southern Hume Highway.
Funding for road safety initiatives has increased to $124m.
The NRMA has welcomed the road spending commitment, saying it will make the NSW economy more competitive and regional roads safer.
A new report from Ernst & Young has examined the status of the toll road market, its future and key issues for government and the private sector.
The findings of the report, The Road Ahead - The Future of PPP in Australian Road Infrastructure, were outlined in an address to the 2007 ARF National Roads Summit in Sydney last week by Ernst & Young’s David Larocca.
The report reviews the value of PPP to government in providing positive commercial, technical and community outcomes. It examines the development of the PPP model including the refinement of the risk allocation, improvement to the procurement and bidding processes and developments in the private sector bidding market.
The Road Ahead also reflects on the future development to the process and mechanisms required to support the next tranche of ‘mega projects’.
For more information go to www.ey.com/Global/content.nsf/Australia/The_Road_Ahead
Melbourne’s huge EastLink project has passed a number of milestones in the past week.
The first of two massive Monash Freeway bridges built over EastLink was opened to traffic last weekend.
Victorian Roads Minister Tim Pallas said the diversion of Monash traffic onto its final alignment would allow work to continue on the rest of the Monash interchange, which will become the biggest and busiest in Victoria.
Meantime, the Heatherton Road overpass, one of the largest bridges on the $2.5 billion EastLink project, was due to open to traffic this weekend providing a direct flyover of Princes Highway (Dandenong Road) and EastLink.
Mr Pallas also announced last week that construction expenditure on EastLink had reached $2 billion.
Mr Pallas said that ConnectEast and its contractor Thiess John Holland had recorded the milestone in record time with remarkable progress achieved in less than two-and-a-half years of construction.
“The rate of construction on EastLink is exceptional, with spending by Thiess John Holland setting a new Australian record for the development of public infrastructure at $100 million for six of the last nine months,” Mr Pallas said.
Mr Pallas said the project was on track to be delivered by November 2008, “and, if this rate of construction continues, possibly before.”
The 2007 Australian Roads Forum National Summit provided the backdrop for the signing of a landmark agreement between ARF members the Queensland Department of Main Roads and ARRB Group.
The multi-million dollar agreement, the first of its kind in Australia, will see ARRB work closely with Main Roads to provide research expertise and share knowledge in areas such as road safety, pavements and materials, traffic engineering, asset management, transport and traffic management, and transport economics.
ARRB Managing Director, Gerard Waldron, and QDMR Director-General, Alan Tesch, took time out during the ARF Summit to sign the historic agreement.
Mr Tesch said he was delighted that Australia’s busiest state road authority was pairing with the nation’s market leader in road research, consulting and technology.
“Major projects such as the Gateway Upgrade and the upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway will benefit from the additional knowledge and skills ARRB can provide,” he said.
Mr Waldron said the agreement built on a long-standing and fruitful relationship between the two organisations.
“This agreement will add to the rich history ARRB and QDMR already have in successfully working together to build, maintain and manage Queensland’s vast road network,” he said.
ARRB’s Queensland office will play a major role in co-ordinating delivery of the services covered by the agreement.
The engineering design for one of Brisbane’s newest busways is utilising extensive tunnelling to minimise its impact on local communities.
The 1.5 kilometre Boggo Road Busway, linking the Eastern Busway and the Eleanor Schonell Bridge (Green Bridge), incorporates 740 metres of driven and cut/cover tunnelling to minimise the impact of busway construction and operation.
The $217 million project, currently under construction, is a vital part of Brisbane's burgeoning busway network that will eventually span the city.
Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), working as part of an Alliance with Thiess and Queensland Transport, has been responsible for the planning and design of the project.
SKM Design Manager, Duncan Kinder, said the Boggo Road Busway’s driven and cut/cover tunnel design balances the needs of the community with the need for better public transport.
“The design had to overcome some key issues including tunnelling under the heritage listed Boggo Road Gaol and areas with shallow cover,” Mr Kinder said.
“This busway includes the longest tunnel in Brisbane’s busway system and its design incorporates vital safety standards for emergency response.”
The Boggo Road Busway is on track for completion by mid 2009. Once operational, around 600 buses and 20,000 passengers a day will use the busway, cutting travel times by between five and ten minutes on weekdays.
National Transport Commission (NTC) Chairman Michael Deegan has called on governments to demonstrate their commitment to Council of Australian Governments (COAG) endorsed reforms for quad axle group trucks, B-triples and SMART trucks by mapping road networks for those heavy vehicles to run on.
In an address to a Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) business luncheon, Mr Deegan said attempts to wind back the clock on axle mass limits for SMART trucks are being driven by fears about increased road wear and the impact on road budgets. This issue is also hampering the development of a meaningful road network.
He said the industry is willing to pay a fair road use charge for higher productivity vehicles and this will be addressed by the 2007 Heavy Vehicle Charges Determination.
“We cannot afford to go backwards on productivity and safety. The Performance Based Standards (PBS) reform for SMART heavy vehicles will shortly be sent to Transport Ministers for voting. Our challenge to governments is to put the system in place, map a network, agree on common-sense charges and work with the industry to ensure this reform evolves to reach its real potential.
“I see no practical alternative to objective Performance Based Standards on the table for long-term productivity reform. It must be given a chance to work.”
For more information, go to www.ntc.gov.au/
A COAG-backed review of heavy vehicle charges will ensure heavy vehicles continue to pay their share of increased spending on better and safer roads.
In a keynote address to a Road & Rail Infrastructure Pricing Conference in Brisbane on 26 June 2007, National Transport Commission (NTC) Chief Executive Nick Dimopoulos emphasised the importance of national transport productivity and pricing reform to support future economic growth.
“A failure to plan, price and manage our transport infrastructure efficiently for the future risks a freight crisis,” he warned. “There is a high price to pay for assuming our roads are limitless and productivity comes for nothing.”
Mr Dimopoulos said the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) reform agenda, supported by the Australian Transport Council (ATC), recognises the importance of productivity and pricing reform. This includes a COAG-endorsed review of heavy vehicle charges as the “building block” for broader pricing reforms.
Since heavy vehicle charges were last updated in 2000, road expenditure by all levels of government has increased by 30%. Mr Dimopoulos said higher road spending plays an important role in lifting productivity, saving lives, cutting trip times and reducing wear and tear on vehicles, with B-double access a particular beneficiary of road upgrades.
“Major upgrades on the Pacific Highway cut travel times and opened the route to more than 200 B-doubles a day in 2002,” he said. “Once renowned as a long distance truck, the B-double has enjoyed phenomenal growth - up 220% to 8,500 trucks since 2000 - and they are now operating widely on urban arterials and into ports and freight terminals.”
Increased road spending led the Productivity Commission’s Road & Rail Infrastructure Pricing report (2007) to conclude that it is likely heavy vehicle charges would need to rise to maintain cost recovery.
The NTC has been asked by Transport Ministers to prepare a Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) for updated heavy vehicle charges. The proposal will be guided by pricing principles agreed by COAG and the ATC, including:
. the recovery of heavy vehicle costs in-aggregate; and
. each class of vehicle should ‘pay their way’.
Mr Dimopoulos said the application of COAG’s pricing principles may lead to rebalancing of charges - with some registration fees going up and others down. Public consultation on the finalised proposal is scheduled for early July 2007.
“The NTC is committed to robust, informed and mature public consultation with all stakeholders. So far, we’ve been encouraged by the constructive and cooperative approach from the industry,” he said.
For more information, go to www.ntc.gov.au/
His Excellency Dr Ken Michael AC, Governor of Western Australia, is the 2007 recipient of the prestigious John Shaw Medal for services to the Australian road industry.
Dr Michael was presented with the Medal at a glittering awards dinner held in Sydney during the ARF National Summit. He was selected for the Award by a peer group of former winners.
Dr Michael completed a Bachelor of Engineering with First Class Honours in Civil Engineering in 1961, and started his career as a bridge design engineer with the Main Roads Department of WA.
After completing a PhD degree in engineering in London in 1968, he returned to Main Roads and expanded his experience into road design, construction and management.
In 1991, he was appointed Commissioner of Main Roads, a position he held for over six years, which extended the scope of his activities to the national and international arena, including his appointment as Australia’s First Delegate to the Permanent International Association of Road Congresses (World Road Association).
He was also a member of the West Australian Planning Commission, and concurrently held the position of Public Service Commissioner with that of Commissioner of Main Roads for just over a year from August 1993.
After retiring from the public service in 1997, Dr Michael undertook a number of consulting roles and government appointments, and in January 2006 was sworn in as the 30th Governor of Western Australia.
Submitted by Mark Bowmer on Friday June 29th 2007 2:46pm
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