Project Description

The Pacific Highway is a major urban arterial road connecting the northern suburbs of the Central Coast along the western flank of the Tuggerah Lakes. Wyong and surrounding suburbs have experienced a large increase in the volume of through traffic in recent times due to sustained urban growth across the Central Coast region and with this the Roads & Maritime Services are planning the upgrade of the Pacific Highway through Wyong town centre.

Key features of the project included:

• Upgrade from a single lane in each direction to dual carriageway (two through lanes in each direction).
• Upgrade Church Street, Rose Street, Anzac Avenue and North Road to traffic control signals.
• Retention of as much of the on-street parking on the western side of the highway as reasonably practical.
• Integration with the bus-rail interchange and reconfigured station parking.

Originally contracted in 2009 to investigate potential design options brought about by community and stakeholder feedback, Hillard Civil has assisted the RMS Project Development team with design and assessment of various design options including alternative town centre alignments, town centre bypass options, Cut/Cover tunnel and several alternate east/west bridge configurations. This lengthy optioning process arrived at the preferred option that is generally accepted by the community and seen as a safe, efficient and economically viable option by the RMS.

During the concept design/REF phase, Hillard Civil was reengaged by RMS to offer technical feedback and provide an efficient cost effective design resource as additional investigation was required. This reduced scope variations the lead contactor may have otherwise encountered and so saving RMS the associated cost.

Cusack Project Services was contracted as Project Manager to assess the preferred option, prepare tender documents and appoint a consultant for concept design and environmental assessment.  Mark Raven provided cost estimating and constructability advice throughout the options assessment process, while Hill Environmental completed the Preliminary Environmental Investigation (PEI).

Services Provided

• Project Management
• Communications including community & stakeholder engagement
• Geometric Road Design (Strategic) & Volumetric Analysis.
• Property Impact/acquisition diagram
• Cost estimating
• GIS constraints & Preliminary Environmental Assessment
• Tender preparation & assessment
• Prepare display material and provide technical assistance at community displays and information sessions.

Innovation

Visualisation – Utilising Bentley MX software along with major customisation developed in-house by Hillard Civil specifically for RMS projects, our team was able to efficiently generate detailed 3d design models for options assessment. This level of detail was then utilised further by creating drive-thru animations, an invaluable tool when presenting to the community.
Pre Tender – Our team utilised Google Earth’s .kmz format to compile a project database. Not only did this provide an easily accessible and user friendly GIS platform for quickly conveying information to the RMS project team, but was also useful when presenting the project at the Concept Design pre tender meeting.