McConnell Dowell has been appointed as the Managing Contractor for an extensive refit of South Australia’s Heysen Tunnels, as part of a broader South Eastern Freeway upgrade.
The Federal and South Australian Governments are both investing in the upgrade works for the tunnels, which see around 50,000 vehicles travel through them each day, with around 10 per cent of these being heavy vehicles.
Initial works – including the start of tunnel lining repairs – have now commenced, and these are expected to continue for for the next two months.
The full scope of the project includes:
- upgrading the tunnel lighting to a new LED system;
- installing a new automated fire suppression system;
- upgrading the tunnel ventilation system;
- repairing the tunnel lining and installing monitoring equipment;
- upgrading the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) equipment, including thermal incident detection systems, new and replacement CCTV, electronic speed and messaging signage and over-height vehicle detection;
- upgrading the traffic management system to restrict access to the tunnels in the event of an emergency incident; and
- upgrading emergency communication systems, including public address, radio rebroadcast, in-tunnel signage and help phones to improve safety and network reliability.