The project involved the construction of a 4 to 6 lane motorway that links Hale Street at Milton to Kingsford Smith Drive at Hamilton. The 4.5km bypass includes the following features:
- Queenslands’ first land bridge linking Victoria Park and Gregory Terrace parklands, crossing
- the bypass.
- A six lane cut and cover tunnel through the RNA Showgrounds, 400m long.
- A 110m diaphragm wall for a four lane tunnel on Kingsford Smith Drive in front of the Breakfast Creek Hotel.
- A series of viaducts and bridges crossing over existing major arterial roads, rail lines and creeks.
The significant project cost savings were largely facilitated by technical and engineering input applied at an early stage. Holcim ’s experience and knowledge of early-age maturity of concrete (based on significant research and development work) was used extensively on the system used to construct the diaphragm wall concrete. As a result, the contractor was able to construct the tunnel wall in half the planned time.
Extensive use was made of superplasticisers and other specialist admixtures to optimise early-age concrete performance for the construction need.