Geotechnical Design and Construction of Port of Brisbane Motorway Upgrade Project

Andrew Hammill & Richard Evans

The Port of Brisbane Motorway Upgrade project involves the construction of 6 km of new and duplicated motorway, delivered under a competitive double Early Contractor Involvement (dECI) model. The majority of the project is underlain by deep saturated soft soils, which presented various geotechnical challenges for performance of the road and interaction with fixed structures. A “tread lightly” observational risk based approach was adopted for the design and construction of embankments and ground improvement works. Extensive instrumentation was installed, monitored and interpreted. This presentation will present the technical design aspects, practical application of the risk management approach and monitoring, and demonstrate key decision making.

Speaker biography

Andrew Hammill is a chartered engineer with 17 years of experience in delivering major transport infrastructure projects in Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Since 2003 he has fulfilled the role of Design Manager for Seymour Whyte Constructions and significantly over the past 5 years has held lead roles in the successful bidding and delivery of major infrastructure projects, the most recent of which is the Port of Brisbane Motorway Upgrade project (PortConnect) a Joint Venture between BMD and Seymour Whyte. PortConnect, which is now expected to be successfully completed by end of February 2013 (6 months ahead of schedule), has been delivered under a double ECI model for TMR as Client.

On PortConnect and in the role of Engineering Manager, Andrew assumed responsibility for managing the technical interfaces between the JV and their wider team including GHD as lead designer, Golder Associates as geotechnical advisor and temporary works designer, and Menard Bachy as specialist D&C ground improvement subcontractor. Andrew was also responsible for managing the interface between the JV’s team and TMR’s technical team responsible for design review and acceptance. These responsibilities spanned both Stages of the project delivery – Stage 1 (Tender) and Stage 2 (Delivery).

Among his key challenges on PortConnect has been the coordination and delivery of the JV’s engineering solutions for building the motorway to meet the intent of the Performance Brief. With a conscious effort to not ‘bury gold in the ground’ PortConnect set themselves the target to set the benchmark for post construction settlement performance of a high volume road in very soft ground environments such as the Brisbane River floodplain. This challenge is the subject of the presentation.

Richard Evans is a geotechnical and dams engineer with 19 years of design and construction Australian and international experience, including substantial Queensland based projects. Richard was previously the Manager of Geotechnical Engineering for the GHD Brisbane office, with a group of around 30 geotechnical engineers, engineering geologists, hydrogeologists and pavement engineering specialists. Under his leadership, the group successfully delivered on multidisciplinary projects, including Springfield to Darra Transport Corridor, the Northern Missing Link Rail, Western Corridor Recycled Water Project Alliances and Middlemount Rail. He is a geotechnical engineer that has worked for consulting firms, but gained considerable practical experience on construction projects.
He recently delivered the geotechnical detailed design and construction support for the PortConnect, involving significant soft soils engineering, which is the topic of the presentation.

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