Key details of two major road projects for Melbourne’s western suburbs have been released this month as part of the Victorian Government’s plan to tackle congestion, provide a long-term alternative to the West Gate Bridge and take trucks off local streets.
Roads and Ports Minister, Tim Pallas, said three route options had been short-listed for the WestLink project for further community and stakeholder consultation following several months of investigations.
All WestLink options involve upgrades to Paramount Road and Dempster Street.
More information is available at the Linking Melbourne Authority website.
"All three short-listed options provide important benefits for Melbourne's west, including direct access to the Port of Melbourne for heavy vehicles and catering for future population growth,” Mr Pallas said.
"In relation to freight movements, our investigations have shown that WestLink would reduce congestion and take heavy vehicles off local roads in the inner west, particularly Somerville Road, Francis Street, Barkly Street and Buckley Street.
"Significantly, the project will also provide an essential alternative to the West Gate Bridge for motorists and those moving goods and services between our eastern and western suburbs."
Community consultation has been a key part of the project’s development and this will continue as the Linking Melbourne Authority works to determine a preferred route by the end of the year, Mr Pallas said.
Meantime, the preferred route for the $380 million Truck Action Plan has been the subject of extensive consultation by VicRoads and addresses the primary aim to get trucks off local streets and minimise impacts on property and the environment.
The alignment involves the construction of new on and off ramps to provide access between Hyde Street and the West Gate Freeway to the west.
Hyde, Whitehall and Moreland Streets will be upgraded and Shepherd Bridge is being widened and strengthened to ensure appropriate access for larger freight-carrying vehicles.
For more information on the Truck Action Plan preferred route, visit www.transport.vic.gov.au
RA has published on its website a new independent report from Dr Max Lay that provides an overview of the latest thinking and developments in Europe on road pricing.
Earlier this year Dr Lay, a respected Australian road industry figure and academic, was invited to participate in a panel discussion at WCIT2010, an international IT conference in Amsterdam. The session looked at road pricing from an IT perspective and included discussion on the politics of the current debate.
As part of his visit to Europe, Dr Lay also met with key transport bureaucrats and road pricing experts from the Netherlands and the UK.
Dr Lay has provided his independent report on the conference and visit to inform Roads Australia members on European developments in this area. The report can be downloaded from the Publications page of the RA website.
Also available on the website is an updated (July) version of Dr Lay’s Road Pricing Primer, which is an appendix to his recent discussion paper on the governance, planning and funding of Australian roads.
RA’s Pipeline webpage, listing major road projects on the horizon, has just been revised with updated information from the east coast road authorities.
Click here to view the Pipeline page.
The RTA has recently called tenders for for the final stage of the Central Coast Highway upgrade between the F3 at Kariong and Wamberal.
NSW Roads Minister, David Borger, said last month that $12-million allocated in the 2010-2011 Budget would allow construction to begin on the Matcham Road to Ocean View Drive duplication.
Tenders close with the RTA next month and the successful contractor will be announced later in the year. Work is expected to begin in early 2011.
Information about this and other RTA tenders is available at www.rta.nsw.gov.au/doingbusinesswithus/e-tendering.html
According to a new Australian Industry Group/ Deloitte CEO survey, skills shortages are again looming large as a major risk for business and pose real problems for companies in terms of production and service delivery.
This situation is forecast to intensify and businesses are working hard to mitigate the risks.
The survey, Skills shortages: A high risk business, involved more than 400 companies of all sizes and found that more than one-third (34.7%) of businesses believe there is a high to extreme risk of skills shortages negatively impacting on the operation of their businesses this year. This level of concern increases to almost half of all companies (47.5%) by 2015.
Ai Group Chief Executive, Heather Ridout, said: "While skills shortages have never totally gone away, they are set to intensify with a vengeance and are arguably the number one threat to our economic growth. While companies learnt painful lessons from past downturns and hoarded their skilled staff, the magnitude of the problem today requires new strategies and renewed effort at a whole new level.
"Of particular concern is that shortages are intensifying in occupations associated with manufacturing, construction and engineering, which are pivotal to the Australian economy. These occupations are based on skills which have a long development lead time, are in high use across the economy and whose absence puts industry at high risk.
"Industry considers that managing skills shortages is a high priority (38.8%), but they also believe that investing in skilling is a shared responsibility between government, business and individuals.”
The full survey results are available at the AIG website.
The Federal Government has approved a further $100,000 in funding for the Australian Green Infrastructure Council's (AGIC) development of a Sustainability Rating Scheme.
The funding aims to develop a national voluntary framework for sustainability assessment, to enable industry participants across government, investment, asset management, engineering, environmental science, and planning and construction to find more sustainable ways of designing, delivering and operating infrastructure.
Infrastructure and Transport Minister, Anthony Albanese, says the Scheme will be a practical tool to demystify sustainability in an infrastructure context, establishing a national industry language and metric based on the principles of economic, social and environmental sustainability, and with common benchmarks for internal monitoring, reporting and improvement.
The latest funding announcement brings the Government's total contribution to this project to $500,000, including $400,000 committed by the Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water.
“Once this first-of-its-kind Scheme is ready, infrastructure providers will be able to reduce the environmental footprint of their projects during both construction and operation, while still maximising the social and financial returns on their investment,” Mr Albanese says.
Further information on the Scheme can be obtained from AGIC's website
An alliance between the RTA and Parsons Brinckerhoff has successfully delivered the planning approvals for the Hume Highway bypasses of Tarcutta, Woomargama and Holbrook.
These town bypasses represent the final sections of the Hume Highway to be duplicated. Environmental Assessments were prepared for each of the bypasses which considered a range of sensitive environmental and community issues including effects on town businesses and agriculture, biodiversity, aboriginal heritage, noise and flooding.
A comprehensive community consultation program was conducted as part of the environmental assessment process to identify and address concerns from affected landowners and the broader community.
Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Alliance Manager, Hugh Swinbourne, said: “This innovative alliance approach promoted a high level of cooperation between RTA and PB team members and led to improved delivery and quality across the project”.
VicRoads has this month unveiled a new community road safety partnership model that will come into effect from July 1 next year.
VicRoads Chief Executive, Gary Liddle, says the new Victorian Community Road Safety Partnership has been developed as the result of an extensive review of the current community road safety programs in Victoria.
"Community road safety programs play an important role in maintaining and improving Victoria’s road safety. The new program model will place greater emphasis on partnerships within a number of community groups and agencies. This will provide a more effective framework to develop and deliver community road safety programs," Mr Liddle said.
"The Victorian Community Road Safety Partnership will be comprised of the Victorian Community Road Safety Alliance and Local Community Road Safety Groups.
"The Alliance will provide leadership and guidance on community road safety initiatives. Members will include seven community representatives, relevant Victorian state government departments, the Municipal Association of Victoria and the Victorian Council of Social Services," he said.
David Healy has been appointed as the first chairperson of the Alliance.
"Mr Healy has over thirty years experience in road safety and has held senior positions in VicRoads and the Transport Accident Commission. His extensive knowledge in road safety will be highly valued in this position," Mr Liddle says.
VicRoads will have responsibility for the overall co-ordination of the new partnership program and is managing its implementation so that it will be fully operational by 1 July 2011.
Roads Australia has met with senior representatives of the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office to provide a broad industry perspective on road project delivery
The meeting was held this month at the invitation of the Auditor-General’s Office to provide feedback on issues it should look at in assessing the efficiency of major road project delivery in Victoria.
RA Chief Executive, Ian Webb, says the meeting provided an opportunity to make the point that efficient project delivery cannot be assessed on dollars alone.
Members variously recommended that the Auditor General note that:
“It was a very positive meeting attended by representatives of a number of Roads Australia members,” Mr Webb says.
Submitted by Mark Bowmer on Wednesday July 21st 2010 2:44pm
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