Main Roads projects come up trumps at engineering excellence awards

A project building better regional roads and relationships joined the massive Gateway Upgrade and an intersection safety scheme to make Queensland’s Main Roads Department a major winner at Engineers Australia’s state awards.

Main Roads placed first in two categories and received a high commendation in a third at the Engineers Australia (Queensland) Engineering Excellence Awards 2007, held in Brisbane last Friday.

Minister for Main Roads and Local Government Warren Pitt said the awards showed again that the department was more than just a good infrastructure-delivery agency.

“Planning and delivering infrastructure is about connecting Queensland communities as well as building roads and bridges,” Mr Pitt said.

“Friday night’s success shows that Main Roads and its partners are among the best in the business when it comes to building major infrastructure.

“The awards given to the Split Rock Inca Alliance and the Reducing Road Accidents at Intersections project show Main Roads is a winner when it comes to delivering community benefits as well.”

The three projects placed as follows in the Engineering Excellence awards:

    o winner, Project Management category – Split Rock Inca Alliance (Main Roads, Myuma Pty Ltd, Seymour Whyte Constructions Pty Ltd)

    o winner, Reports, Procedures and Systems category – Perfecting the Procurement Process, Gateway Upgrade Project (Main Roads, Queensland Motorways Limited)

    o highly commended, Research, Development and Innovation category – Reducing Road Accidents at Intersections (Main Roads Engineering and Technology group).

Main Roads Director-General Alan Tesch, who attended the presentation, said the Main Roads projects won in a highly competitive field.

“There were 40 entrants across 10 award categories, with competition from major government and private-sector agencies,” Mr Tesch said.

“In a climate of record construction spending across the industry, this is a significant achievement.”

The Reports, Procedures and Systems category award was accepted by Mr Tesch and QML CEO Phil Mumford.

The award recognises the role that the development of technical documentation and tender criteria played in gaining the best consortia to construct the $1.88 billion Gateway Upgrade Project.

“The process, which included producing 4000 pages of documentation, set high standards while being sufficiently flexible to encourage innovative approaches from tenderers,” Mr Tesch said.

The Project Management category award was the second major award received by the Split Rock Inca Alliance this week. The project also received a Premier’s Innovation in Skilling award at the 2007 Queensland Training Awards on Thursday night.

The Split Rock Inca Alliance was made up of Main Roads, Seymour Whyte Constructions Pty Ltd and Myuma Pty Ltd, representing the Indjilandji-Dhidhanu people. It the last project in the federally funded Barkly Highway upgrade (Mount Isa-Camooweal) – the Inca/Wooroona Creeks project, completed in December 2006.

The Reducing Road Accidents at Intersections project began in the department’s Engineering and Technology group, and is a methodology to predict accident rates at intersections without traffic lights.

Mr Pitt congratulated all those involved in the winning projects, and the department’s other award entrants.

“Queensland has a record $13 billion in roads construction projects over the next five years,” Mr Pitt said. "These awards show that Queenslanders can be confident that Main Roads has the expertise to rise to the task.”

Media contacts: Minister Pitt’s Office 3227 8819; Main Roads Department 3306 7085