Williamtown Drive Duplication & Nelson Bay Road Intersection Upgrade

Project Summary:

Newcastle Airport is undergoing significant investment in landside infrastructure upgrades to support the expansion of the existing terminal to facilitate long-haul international flights. These upgrades include additional car parking facilities and improvements to existing road networks and intersections.

As a condition of development consent from Port Stephens Council (PSC), the airport is required to enhance access into the airport precinct. This involves duplicating Williamtown Drive to two lanes in each direction from Nelson Bay Road to the existing roundabout and upgrading the traffic signals at the Williamtown Drive/Nelson Bay Road intersection. The work will be administered under Section 138 of the Road Act with Port Stephens Council, a Works Authorisation Deed with Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW), as well as involving a range of other stakeholders, authorities, and asset owners such as Hunter Water Corporation, Ausgrid, Telstra, Optus, Jemena, and NSW EPA.

Project Scope:

● Intersection upgrade to the Nelson Bay Road (NBR) and Williamtown Drive (WTD) signalised intersection to include a second right turn lane from WTD South on to NBR as well as new signalisation for a pedestrian crossing on the Northbound left turn into the airport as part of a TfNSW Works Authorisation Deed (WAD).

● Duplication of the carriageway to a dual lane separated carriageway between NBR and the 5-leg round-a-bout to the West.

● A new shared path along the Southern side of the new duplicated WTD carriageway.

● Street lighting upgrades and alterations.

● An additional large diameter stormwater drainage culvert under WTD near the NBR traffic signals to improve general area drainage.

● Replacement and realignment of an existing sewer rising main along the Southern side of WTD.

● Installation of a new large overhead cantilevered signage structure on the Westbound entry to the airport.

● A range of landscape improvements and beautification works.

Key Challenges:

● Working within the live traffic environment and constraint of not closing lanes within a confined site took complex planning to ensure the full scope of works could be completed to specification. Overall the project performed nine traffic switches, all requiring detailed stakeholder engagement with Council, Newcastle Airport, TfNSW and surrounding businesses.

● The large diameter culvert installation was the culmination of the project team’s and various other Daracon business units’ detailed planning activities. Traffic signals were required to be moved three times within a 108 hour continuous work period. This period saw four traffic switches to support the stage of pipe installation under construction, whilst maintaining traffic in and out of the airport. The depth of excavation required shoring box installation and use for the entire duration, with overhead and underground services also requiring control and risk management. Groundwater management was further required for the duration of the works.

● General groundwater management, in an area prone to high groundwater levels required use of multi-pump installations with coffer dams and other solutions to enable the completion of works to specification.

● Assisting the airport in optimising design, where significant quantities of stabilised pavements were unexpectedly found. This allowed for beneficial reuse of the majority of the material keeping disposal costs to a minimum, as well as ensuring the new design was constructable.

● Worked with the client and asset owners to mobilise nominated industry specialists when out of scope works were identified. This included critical service interactions (fibre and copper communication services to the airport), with relocation and protection of these assets actioned by leveraging Daracon’s industry contacts.

Key Success Factors:

● Early stakeholder engagement with Council, Transport for New South Wales, Asset authorities, surrounding businesses and Newcastle Airport to ensure that traffic staging, utility adjustments and overall works performed did not disrupt Airport operations, and maintained 24-hour each way access as required.

● Engagement and leverage of a number of multidisciplinary Daracon business units to ensure a seamless construction program was achieved.

● Highly detailed staging and construction methodology being performed as part of the tender submission. The up-front investment of time with regard to staging and methodology of construction by the tendering team was evident, as works were delivered without surprise, as planned and made the delivery of the project a very streamlined process.

● Collaboration with Newcastle Airport to optimise aspects of the design and delivery yielded positive results for the project as a whole, which resulted in betterment of the Newcastle Airport’s program and budget.

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