The Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road Upgrade is leading the way in safety, introducing a couple of industry-leading innovations that are making the project site safer for drivers, pedestrians and workers.
In a first for Victorian roads, the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road Upgrade has successfully unveiled remotely operated multi-message traffic control signs along the project’s 10km alignment.
In a ground-breaking trial, Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV) and its construction partners Seymour Whyte and McConnell Dowell have achieved significant safety improvements by replacing traditional multi-message frame signs with remotely controlled ‘TriSigns’.
Developed and manufactured by Safetek Solutions, the TriSigns each incorporate three pre-set messages that a traffic controller can change remotely via a tablet running an Android app. They have been established at regular intervals along the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road Upgrade alignment and will remain there throughout construction.
Using TriSigns on the project has reduced the use of static traffic control frame signs by up to 70 per cent, which has achieved the following significant benefits:
- traffic controllers have been removed from vulnerable positions as they spend considerably less time setting up and removing static signs on the road each day
- more time has been put back into productive construction works as the need to set up and pack up static signs every day has fallen dramatically.
In another ground-breaking initiative on the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road Upgrade, Seymour Whyte and MRPV have utilised a cutting-edge traffic barrier innovation to improve worker and motorist safety, and works productivity on the much-needed intersection upgrade at Ballarto Road.
This has been made possible by a custom-made steel wedge piece developed and manufactured by temporary traffic barrier provider Saferoads. The steel wedge has been used to connect individual free-standing T-Lok concrete barriers to provide a continuous run of barriers at a placement radius of seven metres – a significant improvement on the standard 30-metre radius.
By enabling safety barriers to be more flexibly contoured around a construction site’s perimeter, the steel wedge piece has facilitated a continuous run of barriers on the north-east and south-east corner of the Ballarto Road intersection, fulfilling the construction strategy of an increased work zone and improved worker safety at this black-spot intersection.
By maximising the construction area at the intersection, the Ballarto Road roundabout can be delivered in fewer stages, increasing work efficiencies and enabling early delivery of the project’s most crucial safety upgrade.
Following its successful trial on the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road Upgrade, the Tri-Sign is set to be used by MRPV on the Hall Road Upgrade and the upcoming Pakenham Roads Upgrade, while the T-Lok steel wedge has been approved by the Australian Roads Research Board.
MRPV’s partnerships with McConnell Dowell and Seymour Whyte on the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road Upgrade fall under the Program Delivery Approach (PDA) model introduced in June 2020 – a new collaborative, mutually beneficial approach to infrastructure partnerships.
The Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road Upgrade will deliver safer driving conditions for the 29,000 drivers who use this road every day.
“We’re getting on with the Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road Upgrade, which will deliver safer driving conditions for the 29,000 drivers who use this road every day.”
“Together with our construction partners McConnell Dowell and Seymour Whyte, we’re also leading the way in safety during construction of this vital upgrade, through the use of cutting-edge innovations in traffic management signage and temporary traffic barriers.”
“These innovations are another example of the outstanding outcomes we’re achieving under the Program Delivery Approach (PDA) model – the collaborative, mutually beneficial approach to infrastructure partnerships MRPV introduced in June 2020.”
said Major Road Projects Victoria Program Director Marc Peterson.
Once complete, the upgrade will significantly improve safety, traffic flow and travel times for road users across Melbourne’s southeast.
The Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road Upgrade is expected to be completed by 2025.
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