I suspect the PR spokesperson was a little optimistic – with the tunnels almost complete as well as the bulk of the elevated roads, I don’t think there t really much left for them to deliver to Melbourne.

Very interesting piece. From the quote above, 5000 of the 65000 pieces are to be transported by rail, so that Siding might see some use after all!

Thanks for the extra information J – I’ve noticed some West Gate Tunnel project looking bits in the Westkon Precast yard at Albion, so they might also be involved.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Either due to lack of capacity or specialist skills at Benalla or just the short timeframes meant many components have been made elsewhere. Barriers, parapets, wall panels, beams of various varieties, bridge decks, cross heads and probably many others have all been manufactured by the general precast market in Victoria. Some with regular lead times, some with very short lead times when something unexpected has occurred and a critical switchover is looming.

The project also has a staging yard on Cherry Lane in Laverton North which is where the A Doubles end up and unload the segments etc. There also seem to be a variety of other yards in Footscray for storage and staging.

You may also find the QA processes interesting. Every component has to be produced according to the Vicroads 610 Standard for structural concrete. As part of this extensive records are kept about every single item. Shop drawings, check sheets, pre and post pour photographs and checks, concrete dockets, concrete test results, temperature when casting, stressing (for the prestressed components), and curing records are all amongst the data kept and provided to the project around the time of delivery. Every single piece is individually traceable.

From said article.

Residents in Longwood and Locksley, near Euroa, are up in arms after being told massive loads weighing up to 160 tonnes will be sent through their communities five times a week throughout two years.

The heaviest trucks, including some classed as “super loads”, will travel at 25km/h.

The bridge segments, precast in Benalla, will now take a detour around Pranjip Bridge on Hume Freeway because the historic crossing is not strong enough to handle their weight.

Locals are frustrated because the decision to use their roads was made with short notice and came after authorities previously indicated much of the concrete would go by rail.

But it is understood pieces of the bridges are too big for the railway tracks and authorities have had to scramble to find a solution.

About 5000 pieces of concrete are expected to travel by rail so far, with 65,000 concrete products to be supplied for the entire project.