Kris Croft: Streamlining Hoddle Street

The Streamlining Hoddle Street project is now officially complete.

Fulton Hogan was awarded the construction of this major intersection upgrade to improve traffic flow along Punt Road, Richmond, on the 31st of August 2018.

As Victoria’s first continuous flow intersection, the main works included delivering new and upgraded pedestrian paths and crossings, dedicated cycle lanes on Olympic Boulevard and improvements to tram and bus facilities.

Throughout the project duration, the site team continually stepped up to the challenge, especially when it came to maintaining a high standard of safety on a technically challenging and live traffic site.

An essential requirement that added complexity was the need for traffic signals to be operational at all times across four intersections. To navigate this, the team installed new infrastructure and ensured it was functional before removing the old redundant system.

The team worked over a 220kV cable to construct the new raised walkway under the Punt Road rail bridge. The cable runs underground (north to south) near the project and is the biggest of its kind in Victoria.

Being only one of three locations in Australia with an underground cable of this magnitude, if damaged, it would impact approximately 250,000 houses across the eastern side of metropolitan Melbourne.

Significant milestone achievements during the works included:

• No medical injuries or lost time injuries across approximately 157,000 working hours over nine months.
• The continuous flow intersection being operational approximately two months ahead of our original construction program.
• Stage 1 completed on time and to the satisfaction of our client and the community, supporting a successful season of the Australian Tennis Open Tournament.
• Delivering two major road and tram occupations on time that required the complete closure of Olympic Boulevard and Swan Street.

Numerous safety initiatives were implemented, such as the use of body cameras for Traffic Controllers and Portable Traffic Booms during the tram occupation to help protect our people, equipment and the general public.

Regular safety talks and Toolbox meetings were also conducted to ensure communication remained constant as part of our ongoing Living Safely actions. At any given time, the project’s workforce peaked at 80 workers and 28 staff, demonstrating the level of focus and communication required to deliver such an achievement.

The client was exceptionally pleased, resulting in positive feedback from the Senior Executive Team at Major Road Projects Victoria (MRPV).

Brendan Pauwels, Program Director MRPV said: “The full closure of Swan Street was planned meticulously by the team and they executed the plan beautifully. Especially coming off the back of a full road closure on Olympic Boulevard earlier this year, and the launch of Victoria’s first Continuous Flow Intersection in March.”

Full credit goes to the entire project team led by Daniel Semenjuk who met all the challenges head-on and brought this project to a successful close. Congratulations to everyone involved in delivering this exciting new piece of road and light rail infrastructure that has improved travel time and green light time at one of Melbourne’s busiest intersections.