Leighton News - Leighton Holdings

Joint venture gears up
for $1.5 bn motorway
With 40 kilometres of motorway to construct in an arc
dissecting the growing outer suburbs of Sydney, the Abigroup
Leighton Joint Venture has a major logistical task on its hands.
The new highway, the Western Sydney Orbital
motorway, is the largest single road-building
project ever awarded in New South Wales.
Indicative of its size is the fact that, at peak,
more than 1500 people are likely to be
working on its design and construction, it will
have 17 interchanges and will include about
170 bridges.
Contracts for the Abigroup Leighton Joint
Venture to commence work were signed in
February and the project will take about four
years to complete.
The Western Sydney Orbital is a
Commonwealth Government project as part of
the National Highway program, with project
management by the NSW Roads and Traffic
Authority.
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson said
that, when completed in 2007, motorists
would be able to travel from south of Liverpool
to Pennant Hills in less than 30 minutes,
saving over an hour and avoiding an estimated
56 sets of traffic lights on existing routes.
NSW Minister for Roads, Carl Scully said
that, when the new route opened, it was
expected to take 60,000 vehicles a day
(including 10,000 heavy vehicles) off western
Sydney roads.
Strong Consortium
The joint venture will construct the Western
Sydney Orbital for WestLink Motorway
Limited – the consortium named by
the Roads and Traffic Authority as its
preferred bidder to build, own and operate
the new route.
Both Abigroup and Leighton are members of
the WestLink consortium, which also
includes Macquarie Bank and Transurban
Group; operator of Melbourne’s extensive
CityLink freeway system.
“Abigroup and Leighton Contractors formed
their joint venture because both companies
have highly experienced personnel at all
levels, have a successful track record in
large infrastructure projects and are
extremely experienced road builders,” said
project director Tony Spink.
“Both companies already operate large
modern fleets of the specialised equipment
needed for the task. Therefore, there is little
need for capital expenditure on new plant to
undertake the work.”
He said the companies’ relationship was “a
true joint venture”, with both sharing the
entire design and construction contract on
an equal basis, and also equally sharing the
ongoing operations and maintenance
contract for the life of the concession period.
Currently, the design work is under way and
the construction teams are being formed.
Because of its size and scope, the Western
Sydney Orbital involves a relatively lengthy
approval process before substantive
construction can start; probably in mid-year.
“There is a large number of stakeholders,
most of the significant government agencies
have an input and we traverse four local
council areas. Then there are environmental,
local traffic and transport, and community
considerations along the entire route,”
Tony said.