Development and Application of Geotechnical Monitoring and Data Management for Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway Upgrade

One of the major challenges on the Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway upgrade involved constructing more than 26 kilometres of road infrastructure over soft ground within 1 to 2 years, as part of upgrading 155 kilometres of the Pacific Highway. This included one of Australia’s largest soft ground instrumentation programs. As with many other sections of the Pacific Highway, the design required embankments on soft ground to meet pavement performance criteria, and address risks of instability of high fill embankments, and the potential impact of the new works on existing infrastructure. Data-management systems and automation maximized the value of site investigation data collected using GIS and document management capabilities. The project adopted web based real-time reporting which provided high information availability, transparency, efficiency and reliability. This paper provides a framework of the system with its unique features and functionalities. It demonstrates the monitoring and feedback process at several sections of the project, looks at innovations introduced as part of the work, discusses how monitoring could be improved, and describes applications of smart digital technology and high-performance computing which were used to facilitate early decision making, and enhance project and client outcomes.