Precast concrete everywhere

The most obvious usage of precast concrete on the West Gate Tunnel Project is the tunnels themselves.

Each of the 3-lane tunnels requiring 2500 precast concrete segments to line the interior.

West Gate Tunnel Project photo

But the massive viaduct running above Footscray Road also requires tonnes of precast concrete.

Piers to hold up the two carriageways.

Then there is the bridge deck itself.

Assembled using a giant mobile gantry.

From shorter sections of precast concrete.

Enter LS Precast

In a paddock outside Benalla is a yard filled with massive pieces of precast concrete.

Google Maps

Cranes everywhere.

Each massive piece of precast concrete was created inside an bigger sheds.

Then stacked up outside.

Google Maps

Hundreds of tunnel lining segments waiting to make the trip to Melbourne.

Multiple times a day, A-double semi trailers departs the yard.

On the 200 kilometre, two and a half hour drive down the Hume Highway to Melbourne.

There they thread their way through the western suburbs to West Gate Tunnel work site.

The precast concrete elements that make up the elevated viaduct above Footscray Road are also manufactured at Benalla.

But since these elements are much larger.

West Gate Tunnel Project photo

They need to be transported by specialised low loader trucks.

West Gate Tunnel Project photo

To spread their extreme weight across the road surface.

West Gate Tunnel Project photo

What about trains

Benalla is on a railway line, and so is Melbourne – so why not transport all of these pieces of precast concrete by train? Well, that is exactly what the government said would happen.

New Benalla manufacturing facility to create hundreds of jobs for rural and regional Victorians
1 Feb 2018

Victoria’s largest precast concrete manufacturing facility will be built in Benalla to supply major Victorian infrastructure projects, create 400 jobs and provide a massive boost to the local economy.

The $60 million facility will be operated by local businesses and will supply precast concrete for major projects including the West Gate Tunnel Project.

The facility will be capable of producing up to 1,500 tonnes of concrete product per day at peak capacity.

Benalla’s access to road and rail infrastructure means the facility is well placed to supply future Victorian and interstate projects, creating ongoing economic benefits to Benalla and surrounding communities.

To limit the number of trucks on local roads, the precast concrete segments for the West Gate Tunnel Project will be transported to Melbourne by freight train.

A new 700m rail siding will be built along the existing rail line in Benalla to provide a direct link between the precast facility and Melbourne.

The West Gate Tunnel Project will provide an estimated $11 billion boost to the Victorian economy, creating 6000 new jobs.

Construction of the Benalla precast facility is due to commence in March 2018, and it will be fully operational from October 2018.

With a railway siding constructed right into the casting plant at Benalla.

New Rail Siding For Benalla Precast Concrete Facility
25 September 2018

Work has started on a huge rail siding to service the new precast concrete facility being built in Benalla.

Minister for Roads Luke Donnellan joined Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes to visit the worksite today, that will soon start producing precast concrete for the Andrews Labor Government’s West Gate Tunnel.

A new 700 metre siding will be created from the existing rail line to provide direct access to the precast facility.

New rail track will also be built – connected to the nearby freight line – so the concrete segments can be loaded directly from the precast facility on to freight trains and transported to Melbourne.

About 20 metre of new track has been laid and the existing train line is being upgraded ahead of the commissioning of the new siding in late 2018.

Construction is well underway on a new $60 million precast concrete facility in Benalla in readiness for concrete production.

The facility will initially provide over 65,000 concrete products for the massive West Gate Tunnel Project.

Excavators are currently levelling the site and the steel frames are going up for the three large sheds to be built on the site.

The precast facility will include a concrete batching plant, the large sheds for precast concrete production, offices, precast product storage, maintenance areas, a precast rail siding and 300 car parking spaces for workers.

The precast facility will be the largest of its kind in Victoria, capable of producing over 1,500 tonnes of concrete product per day at peak capacity.

The precast facility will create 400 jobs and will help ensure regional communities can benefit from the many opportunities created by the state’s booming infrastructure sector.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Roads and Road Safety Luke Donnellan

“It’s fantastic to see the progress being made on this, the largest precast concrete facility of its kind in Victoria.”

“Building the new rail siding means that we can get concrete products from Benalla to Melbourne via the existing rail network, avoiding heavy vehicle traffic and associated road impacts.”

Quotes attributable to Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes

“This is a massive investment in Benalla and we are already seeing jobs being created for local people with construction well underway.”

“This facility nearly didn’t happen due to the Liberal and National parties’ opposition to the project, I’m proud that my home town of Benalla and people throughout the north east share in the benefits of the Andrews Labor Government’s West Gate Tunnel.”

But by October 2020 their messaging had changed.

By having the concrete segment facility in Benalla, it ensured that regional Victoria benefited from our state’s infrastructure boom – creating jobs and providing a boost to the local economy.

The facility is supplying a variety of precast concrete products for the West Gate Tunnel Project and was selected due to its proximity to local quarries, its production capability and the easy access to Melbourne via transport networks . These products come in a range of sizes, shapes and weights.

A number of precast segments are not suitable to transport by freight train and will be delivered to West Gate Tunnel work sites by truck, using approved truck routes. The project team is exploring which precast segments are suitable to transport to Melbourne via rail. We’ll keep you updated through these channels as things progress.

The rail siding is clearly visible in the aerial view on Google Maps.

Google Maps

But as fas as I know, the rail siding at the Benalla precast yard has never been used by trains, and none of the precast segements have been transported by rail – however the cement used to make the segments did get moved by rail to Benalla station.

Footnote: some videos

Building the concrete precast facility at Benalla.

And flying over the completed yard.

Test fitting tunnel lining segments.

Delivering precast segments to the West Gate Tunnel work site.

Assembling the bridge columns.

And an animation showing how the bridge builder above Footscray Road works.

Footnote: other recent projects

The concrete segments for the Metro Tunnel were cast at a yard at Ravenhall, only 30 kilometres from their final destination.

While the precast concrete for the ‘Skyrail’ bridges were initially cast 50 kilometres away at Pakenham, and are now cast 70 kilometres away at Kilmore.

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Checking the speeds of both motor vehicle,s and a a procession of trams on route route 57 and 82.

Tram drivers have been caught speeding before – such as this 2006 article from ‘The Age’.

A Melbourne tram has been clocked speeding by police – the first time a driver has been caught by a radar gun.

A traffic policeman with the laser radar gun clocked the tram at 57kph in a 40kph zone on Malvern Road, Prahran, shortly after 7.30am, a police spokeswoman said.

The officer intercepted the tram and issued the driver with an on-the-spot fine, she said.

“It’s the first time that a member has detected a speeding tram. He said it was quite unusual,” she said.

The officer, from Stonnington traffic management unit, said the tram driver was “co-operative”, the spokeswoman said.

“There was no animosity,” she said.

The driver was fined $215 and will lose three demerit points from his normal driver’s licence.

Yarra Trams spokesman Colin Tyrus said the driver also would be counselled by the company and would be subject to an internal disciplinary process, but would not disclose the process for privacy reasons.

“There’s no exception for tram drivers to the speed limit,” Mr Tyrus said.

“This is something that Yarra Trams regularly refers to in refresher training and initial training, that drivers are required to observe the road laws of the state of Victoria, and that includes speed limits.”

As well as running red lights.

About four trams an hour are running red lights in Melbourne’s CBD, a Herald Sun investigation has revealed.

Pedestrians have had to jump out of the way as trams hurtle through intersections on a red light.

But Victoria Police statistics reveal that since September 2006 only two tram drivers have been booked for running red lights.

A spokesman for the Rail, Tram and Bus Union said: “I don’t think any driver blatantly goes through a red light.”

Yarra Trams spokesman Colin Tyrus said tram drivers were trained to do their best to be on time, but not at the expense of safety.

He said trams were 30m long and unable to accelerate through an intersection like a car.

He added that drivers could cause injuries to passengers if they hit the brakes too suddenly.

Tram drivers are required to hold a normal driver’s licence – but for tram drivers who started the job before the rule was introduced in 1984, they had to be grandfathered in.

Lenny Bates started working at the Kew depot in 1955, forsaking a promising career as a registered plumber. In the ensuing 5½ decades he was a conductor, a driver, a trainer of hundreds of other drivers, and finally a driver again.

He spent his later years on routes 109 from Box Hill to Port Melbourne and 48 from North Balwyn to Docklands, gaining recognition and affection for his colourful and detailed announcements about local landmarks along the route.

As trams evolved, Mr Bates embraced whatever training was required to master the new models. ”Lenny came to the depot when we had 1920s technology, and progressed through that into today’s high-tech trams … He came from pencil and paper up to the touch screen,” Mr Andrews says.

But he never learnt to drive a car, even after a rule was brought in that tram drivers must have a valid driver’s licence. An exception was made for him.

Footnote: how fast can trams go anyway?

The Yarra Trams “Infrastructure – Tram Track Design” standards list the maximum speed for each class of tram.

Under Appendix C “Tram Specifications”.

Z3, A1, A2, B1, B2 classes
65 km/h powers off
75 km/h forced braking
Speed at max current draw: approximately 30 km/h
Acceleration: 1.5 m/s² ± 0.05

Citadis C1 class
77-80 km/h powers off
No forced braking
Speed at max current draw: 29 km/h @ 600V, 21.8 km/h @ 450V
Acceleration: 1-30 km/h ± 1.57 m/s², 1-60 km/h ± 1.57 m/s²

Citadis C2 class
70 km/h powers off
No forced braking
Acceleration: 1.03 m/s² ± 5%

Combino D1 class
70 km/h powers off
No forced braking
Speed at max current draw: 39-55 km/h
Acceleration: ≤1.3m/s² to 39 km/h, ≤0.95m/s² avg. to 70 km/h

Combino D2 class
70 km/h powers off
No forced braking
Speed at max current draw: 30-55 km/h
Acceleration: ≤1.3m/s² to 30 km/h, ≤0.86m/s² avg. to 60 km/h

Flexity E class
Max speed: 80 km/h
60 km/h traction cut
65 km/h brakes apply
Acceleration: 1.3m/s² to 30 km/h (fully loaded)

As well as the standards to which new track is built to.

In table B16 “Minimum Design Speed”.

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The example I found was on Anderson Road in Sunshine, and offered travel times to Taylors Lakes.

Via two routes – McIntyre Road and Sunshine Avenue through Keilor, or Forrest Street and Station Road through Deer Park.

Someone mentioned they first started seeing them between Melbourne’s first two lockdowns, and then I remembered the ‘Keeping Victorians Moving’ package that the Victorian Government blew $340 million on back in June 2020.

Keeping Victorians Moving During Coronavirus
30 June 2020

The Andrews Labor Government is making it easier for people and goods to get around Melbourne with better technology, more specialist staff and stronger enforcement of clearways in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Minister for Roads and Road Safety Ben Carroll today unveiled a $340 million package of measures to make it easier for people and freight to get around on our roads.

The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered the way Melburnians move around the city with more people now expected to use cars to get around.

The number of people making trips on Melbourne’s roads each day is increasing, with road traffic now only 17 per cent below normal levels, while passenger numbers on public transport are 71 per cent less than the same time last year.

To keep Melburnians moving during this time, we’re ramping up direct traffic interventions by tasking more response crews and traffic engineers with tackling congestion hotspots, incidents and blockages on the network.

Three key traffic hotspots in the western, eastern and south eastern suburbs of Melbourne will also be blanketed with the technology and resources to help keep traffic moving, reduce delays and provide drivers with better traffic information.

Almost 700 CCTV cameras will be installed to identify bottlenecks as soon as they start and more than 200 wireless travel time sensors and 40 new visual message boards will put live traffic data in the hands of our traffic management centre and drivers.

Six extra incident response crews and dozens more specialist traffic engineers will be hired to keep our roads moving around the clock – creating jobs and reducing delays from unexpected events.

The timing of hundreds of traffic lights – along with traffic patterns and crash data – will be analysed and re-sequenced to maximise traffic flow along some of the busiest routes in the targeted areas.

So that’s one of the 40 visual message boards installed around Melbourne – at a cost that had increased to $388 million when it was included in the 2020-21 Victorian Budget.

The Department of Transport started the objective of the initiative was:

To maximise arterial road performance and minimise unnecessary delays for all road users with more dedicated onroad capability and technology.

And detailed their progress as of May 2021.

Key activities include:

• Roll out of 691 CCTV cameras, 210 Bluetooth travel time detectors, 42 live travel time signs and 75 dynamic pedestrian detectors and perform signal route reviews on 759 sites and provide greater visibility of the road network
• Procurement of a situational awareness system, implement an improved data fusion model and deploy 7 fixed and 4 mobile Air Quality emissions stations across metropolitan Melbourne.
• Recruitment of 154 roles, including congestion managers and surveillance staff.
• Procurement of additional new vehicles for the onroads teams.

Progress achieved against key Government outcomes:

• Asset deployment team has delivered 520 CCTV cameras, 193 Bluetooth detectors, 26 permanent variable messaging system (VMS), 27 dynamic pedestrian detectors and 2 vehicle detectors.
• The draft data fusion model is in operation, Trial Air Quality emissions station has been deployed and a contract for four mobile Air Quality stations has been awarded.
• Six Incident Response vans have arrived and are undergoing fit-out.

And the breakdown of funding per budget year:

2020-21
$108.7 million

2021-22
$45.7 million

2022-23
$28.9 million

2023-24
$28.9 million

That only adds up to $212.2 million, so what about the other $176 million – perhaps another six years of operating costs, at $28.9 million per year.

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Their start their life behind an anonymous gate in Ravenhall, next door to the Regional Rail Link tracks.

But the ‘tunnel lining segment manufacturing facility’ sign gives it away.

Overhead cranes travel over the casting yard.

Segments and a sunset. More than 1,500 concrete segments have been manufactured at our tunnel lining segment facility in Melbourne’s west. Our tunnel boring machines will use 56,000 curved concrete segments to create a watertight lining inside the twin 9km rail tunnels. pic.twitter.com/rCi0iIzOCp

— Metro Tunnel (@metrotunnelvic) July 22, 2019

Production started early, so that a stockpile of tunnel lining segments could be built up.

It’s no cornfield, but how’s the serenity? So much serenity.

Our tunnel segment manufacturing facility is in full production mode pumping out the 56,000 concrete segments required to line the Metro Tunnel’s twin nine-kilometre tunnels. pic.twitter.com/ZD1tva9YQ2

— Metro Tunnel (@metrotunnelvic) August 20, 2019

180 segments being poured a day.

The first segments were delivered in August 2019.

The first tunnel segments have arrived at the new North Melbourne Station site with 18 concrete segments delivered, each weighing 4.5 tonnes.

The TBM will use these segments to create temporary rings to line the steel bell, which is an innovative launching method for the TBMs. pic.twitter.com/QzOUQZxx4P

— Metro Tunnel (@metrotunnelvic) August 22, 2019

Driven across Melbourne six at a time on the back of a semi-trailer.

Until they arrived at the future North Melbourne station site.

In September work on the shed over the station box was still underway.

But was completed in October.

Ready to store the concrete segments, before they are lowered into the tunnel.

Loaded onto a rubber tyred TBM support vehicle.

Even the mightiest machines need some support

Meet our TBM support vehicles, tasked with delivering the concrete segments needed to line the Metro Tunnel and will eventually be used to transport our team to and from the TBMs. pic.twitter.com/5Nu2CiaYSE

— Metro Tunnel (@metrotunnelvic) November 13, 2019

And driven through the tunnel to the TBM itself.

TBM Joan is on her way towards Kensington, installing a number of tunnel lining rings, composed of concrete segments. The team has been monitoring Joan’s performance and systems, including confinement pressure management, ring building, segment handling and grouting. pic.twitter.com/Hsa9dVdZ2f

— Metro Tunnel (@metrotunnelvic) October 6, 2019

Which then assembles them into a tunnel wall.

A sidenote on the gantry cranes

The gantry cranes at the casting yard were supplied by Australian manufacturer Eilbeck Cranes, as were cranes at the Melbourne CBD worksites.

Those cranes seem to be more successful than those at Parkville station – dismantled due to safety concerns.

Meanwhile on the West Gate Tunnel

The West Gate ‘Tunnel’ might be predominately surface roads, but it actually features two tunnels: 4 kilometre long outbound and 2.8 kilometre long inbound.

The precast concrete segments for this project are being manufactured by LS Precast in Benalla, served by a dedicated rail siding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pEzo0HCfBY

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Twice a day a train departs the Melbourne Freight Terminal at South Dynon.

The train skirts the edge of Southern Cross Station.

Then rolls through the river end of Flinders Street Station.

Then traverses the tracks at Richmond Junction.

Heads towards Caulfield.

Over the rollercoaster grades at Ormond, McKinnon and Bentleigh.

Eventually making it south to Frankston.

Then heads along the single track Stony Point line.

Turning off the main line at Long Island Junction.

To arrive at the BlueScope Steel plant beside Westernport Bay in Hastings.

Photo via Southern Peninsula News

Some history

The steel mill at Hastings was opened by Lysaght in 1972. Lysaght’s was acquired by BHP in 1979, demerged as BHP Steel in 2002, and then renamed BlueScope Steel in 2003.

The Victorian Government encouraged the development of the plant with the passing of the Western Port (Steel Works) Act 1970 – specific provisions relating to rail were:

The Premier on behalf of the State covenants that the State will ensure that there shall be provided –

• to the boundary of the Plant Site a suitable rail link by which rail facilities constructed by the Company at its cost within its boundaries may be connected to the Victorian Railways network;
• adequate rail motive power and rolling stock and suitable rail services to ensure the satisfactory movement of materials products and equipment to and from the Plant;
• rail transportation services for the conveyance of employees of the Company or its site contractors to and from the Plant

under such conditions as are agreed between the Victorian Railways Commissioners and the Company.

The 6.2 km long branch line from the Stony Point line opened in 1969, with 87,730 tons of traffic being moved over the new connection in 1972/1973. The efficiency of these trains was improved following the introduction of dedicated block trains, with 50,000 tonnes of coiled steel transported from Hastings during 1981/82.

Weston Langford photo #115670

The Hastings Port industrial area land use plan detailed the operation of the mill during the 1990s:

Steel slab is brought in by rail and ship, primarily from Port Kembla, for processing into a range of finished-steel products for the local, national and international markets. Products are sent by truck to the local market, by rail to interstate markets in South Australia and Western Australia, and by ship to international markets. Presently BHP sends 300 000 tonnes of steel a year by rail from Whyalla and Port Kembla to Westernport, but has an agreement which would permit this tonnage to be increased to 800,000 tonnes.

BHP is constantly reviewing and upgrading its operations to increase efficiency and become more export-orientated. A new cold-strip galvanised steel production line has recently been commissioned at a cost of some $138 million. Presently BHP steelworks employs 1500 persons and produces approximately 1.2 million tonnes of steel a year from a plant that has a capacity to produce 2.6 million tonnes. The new galvanised steel line increased production capacity by some 800 000 tonnes without requiring any large increase in staff numbers.

Today the steel trains are operated by Pacific National following the sale of the National Rail Corporation in 2002, and form the sole freight link to the mill following the 2012 retirement of the ‘Iron Monarch’ that moved slab steel by sea between Port Kembla and Hastings.

Facts and figures

Today each steel train is made up of 40 wagons and is hauled by a pair two 2,830 kW (3,800 hp) G class diesel locomotives, with approximately 600,000 tonnes of steel product per annum moved by rail to Hastings.

Made train is made up of a mix of wagons with pairs of ‘jumbo’ coils of steel.

And ‘butterbox’ containers of coil steel.

The average wagon has a tare mass of around 20 tonnes (based on a RKLX class wagon) and with a loaded gross mass of 74 to 79 tonnes – or 30 tonnes for a single container!

For the proposes of comparison, the permitted gross vehicle mass of a standard six-axle semi-trailer in Victoria is 42.5 tonnes – or a single container per truck. With 40 containers and 40 steel coils per train, and two trains per day each way, a total of 320 truck movements are required to move the same load.

Rail gauge troubles

Australia’s rail gauge muddle has complicated the operation of trains to Hastings – steel loaded on broad gauge trains from Hastings needs to be transferred onto standard gauge trains to head interstate.

Initially this occurred at Albury and Adelaide, until the gauge conversion of the Melbourne–Adelaide rail corridor by the National Rail Corporation in 1995. This saw the opening of the Melbourne Steel Terminal in West Melbourne, where the steel would be transhipped between local broad gauge trains and interstate standard gauge trains.

This terminal closed in 2015 to make room for the ‘E’ Gate development, with transhipping of steel now occurring at the nearby Melbourne Freight Terminal.

The provision of standard gauge access to Hastings has been examined multiple times, via the Frankston or Cranbourne lines, but no progress has been made towards such a connection.

And elsewhere in Australia

Steel trains to Hastings form a small part of the work that Pacific National does for BlueScope Steel and Arrium across Australia. In 2003 the deal was valued at $400 million over four years, and was followed in 2006 by a $1 billion seven year contract, which was extended for another seven years from 2015.

A total of 2.3 million tonnes of steel moved by rail in 2013:

• 1.38 Million is Port Kembla and Westernport outbound
• 0.96 Million is transported on behalf of Onesteel

The reason for these massive numbers – each piece of steels moves an average of 3.2 times through manufacturing plants, rail terminals, distribution centres and customer sites.

To cater for this traffic, a specialised fleet of wagons is used:

• Steel Coil – 2.5-28t (Horizontal and Vertical), 285 ‘butter box’ wagons
• Steel Plate In & Out of Gauge – 67 flat wagons, 55 tilt wagons
• Structural Beams – Shared fleet, typical 5-15 wagon per week
• Scrap – 46 scrap box’s, 23 container wagons
• Raw Materials – 3 locomotive Sets, 100 wagons

Which results in varied trains.

Footnote

Think this look familiar? It’s an expanded version of my 2018 post Rail replacement trucks for the Frankston line.

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Twice a day a 40 wagon long train departs the Melbourne Freight Terminal at South Dynon bound for the BlueScope Steel plant on the Stony Point line at Hastings.

The train skirts the edge of Southern Cross Station.

Then rolls through the river end of Flinders Street Station.

Then traverses the tracks at Richmond Junction.

Heads towards Caulfield.

Eventually making it south towards Frankston.

Then heads along the single track Stony Point line.

To arrive at the BlueScope Steel plant beside Westernport Bay in Hastings.

Photo via Southern Peninsula News

So how many trucks are needed?

As you might imagine, steel is bloody heavy.

Each of the first 20 wagons are loaded with a pair of ‘jumbo’ coils of steel sheet.

While the 20 wagons at the rear carry a pair of ‘butterbox’ containers of coil steel.

The average wagon has a tare mass of around 20 tonnes (based on a RKLX class wagon) and with a loaded gross mass of 74 to 79 tonnes – or 30 tonnes for a single container!

For the proposes of comparison, the permitted gross vehicle mass of a standard six-axle semi-trailer in Victoria is 42.5 tonnes – or a single container per truck.

With 40 containers and 40 steel coils per train, and two trains per day each way, that is an extra 320 trucks on the Monash Freeway each day.

Good thing the trains will return in June 2018!

The impact of rail shutdowns on freight operators

Australian Paper is another industry dependent on rail as part of their supply train, with a daily train doing the work of 40 trucks. When the rail corridor to Gippsland was severed in 2012, they had to quickly shuffle their operations.

Australian Paper general manager packaging, procurement and external relations Julian Mathers said the Maryvale mill was one of the state’s largest users of the Port of Melbourne, transporting 240,000 tonnes of paper products to the port via the Gippsland rail line annually, with six freight train services using the line every week.

The temporary closure of the rail line east of Moe for seven weeks last year required a “huge logistical response” by the company to continue its output via road transport, Mr Mather said.

“When you consider the volumes that are going out – our rail freight represents about 40 per cent of products moved out of Maryvale – we had to put in a lot of work in rescheduling deliveries on the road,” he said.

As did a second unplanned shutdown in October 2014.

Meanwhile the train line’s largest freight user, Australian Paper, has been forced to source emergency road transport amid the rail line’s temporary closure.

Transporting more than 300 shipping containers of paper product to Melbourne ports every week across a minimum of seven services, the Morwell bridge closure has cut off a major supply route for the company.

A fully packed freight train sat idle on the line on Friday afternoon, as V/Line announced the track’s indefinite closure, before it was eventually allowed to pass through.

Australian Paper national logistics manager Phillip Porter said the company’s freight contractor Qube Logistics had reshuffled its broader trucking fleet to meet the sudden shortfall in transport capacity.

Mr Porter said Qube had brought in a fleet of ‘Skel’ trailers, capable of carrying single shipping containers, while extra ‘tautliner’ trucks had been brought online.

“Qube has a range of trucks performing different tasks, which they have shuffled… to free them up for us,” Mr Porter said.

“The trucks are working on 12-hour shifts so they can do two full trips in that time.”

But even planned shutdowns impact operations at the mill.

But generally speaking getting access to the track and setting up a regular schedule is reasonably achievable. It is accommodating the outages. If they are going to have a big break over Easter, we need to essentially get an extra four trains down in the previous couple of weeks, and getting the extra services slotted in is where the trouble is.

And we have to have made the product early, hence we have got a cash flow issue, or we have to get the containers early, or we have to purchase or hire extra containers. It results in either a stockpile of containers or a stockpile of product. I suppose the major thing really is the alignment of those outages.

What we observe is that the timing of the outages for Metro rail do not tend to align to the outages for V/Line, and we get a sequence of outages on following weekends, which should just be consolidated and minimised. I suppose we get a lot this second-hand through our rail provider. Qube is actually the one doing the service scheduling and deals directly with V/Line and Metro rail. What they are telling us is that there are these difficulties in coordinating these activities.

Nothing in logistics is ever simple!

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