Northern Hume Alliance: An Example of Integrated Geotechnical Design and Construction

Colin Parker & David Jarred

The Northern Hume Alliance (NHA) is an alliance between five organisations charged with upgrading the Hume Highway to a four lane highway between the Sturt Highway intersection (north of Tarcutta) and the township of Holbrook. The participants in the NHA include the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority, Leighton Contractors, Maunsell, SMEC and Coffey. The works are federally funded with a set budget and time restrictions attached to the funding requiring completion of the works before December 2009.

The upgrade involves some 36 km of highway duplication occurring in four separate areas spread over 85km of the Hume Highway. NHA has a significant focus on the quality of earthworks and pavements as well as seeking high performance outcomes for safety, environment, programme and cost. Key result areas were determined for each of the major quality areas, and these have been tracked progressively through the project.

This presentation shows how integration of the RTA, constructors and designers within the alliance drove high quality design solutions in relation to road safety, construction safety and product quality. During construction phase, this same integration was maintained with a site based geotechnical surveillance, testing and design team assisting the constructor with achieving quality outcomes.

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