Scope
In December 2019, HEH Civil began work in partnership with the Department of Transport and Main Roads on the Cairns Western Arterial in North Queensland. The Cairns Western Arterial Road is among Cairns’ most important strategic transport corridors, linking some of the city’s most heavily populated residential areas. The Harley Street intersection required a single-lane road to be upgraded to double through lanes with expanded capacity for turn lanes. This also included the relocation of council water mains, the construction of a new bus stop, and the upgrade of the signal, pedestrian crossing, and street lighting.

Challenges

• Working within a high traffic volume environment (AADT/VPD 13,560), local schools, and residential areas.
• Requirement for extensive non-destructive excavations, identification, and survey verification of all services over a 1.4km area.
• Logistics of service relocation works occurring concurrently with other infrastructure work operations.
• Complex traffic management strategies to ensure safe workplaces for all personnel and the traveling public.
• Multi-staged changeover of existing signalised intersection from single carriageway to dual carriageway including slip lanes required planning and design of temporary signalised intersections.
• Planning and performance of all water main cutover works including 660mm Northern Beaches trunk main. This required critical design and planning with Cairns Regional Council to ensure no disruption to water supply to the entire Northern Beaches area.
• Management of the removal and disposal of all existing asbestos water mains.
• Programming and planning of the 5000t of asphalt surfacing to minimise any disruption to the Cairns Western Arterial Road.

Achievements

The Harley Street Intersection Upgrade project brought about some fantastic achievements for the HEH Civil team.
Such a complex project provided a necessary upgrade of the trunk water main and the road construction which services the community in a much greater capacity. The upgrade has significantly improved traffic flow along the Cairns Western Arterial.
We were able to revise the scope of work to save expense on the project wherever possible, ensuring that the challenges we encountered didn’t blow out the budget.
With the construction of new footpaths, residents were able to access the Peace Lutheran College in a safe manner.

Conclusion
The Harley Street Intersection Upgrade Project was one that HEH Civil was proud to be associated with. The challenges kept the project interesting and encouraged our team to grow. All works were completed in September 2021 with great outcomes for the local community.