Airport Link comes first for safety

Monday, 09 December, 2013

Airport Link has won the 2013 Consult Australia Award for Excellence in Safety in Design, to round-off the project’s award-winning year.

Parsons Brinckerhoff and Arup Joint Venture (PBA) delivered the design contract for the $5.6bn project. PBA said the statistics speak for themselves in describing the magnitude and complexity of Airport Link and this award recognises the team’s commitment to ensuring safety in its design.

The judges strongly commended the two competing organisations for coming together and collaborating on the important issue of safety in design. They were impressed by the project-specific processes put in place that covered out every detail and applauded the efforts of both Parsons Brinckerhoff and Arup.

Speaking from the awards ceremony, PBA project director Luke van Heuzen emphasised the importance of integrating the safety-in-design process across all stages of the project life cycle.

“Safety in design is paramount for a project of this size - a project that has included a tollway, dedicated busway route, 12 km of tunnels, 25 connection bridges and a major upgrade of an existing motorway interchange.

“The benefit of thinking through the process of design, construction and operation at the earliest stages and confirming them at key hold points allowed the design team to effectively contribute toward the safe construction and operation of this project,” said van Heuzen.

Since its completion, Airport Link has received widespread industry recognition and public praise including two recent wins: Engineers Australia Australian Engineering Excellence Awards 2013, The Sir William Hudson Award and International Road Federation (IRF) Global Road Achievement Awards 2013, Award for Design.

PBA said it takes great pride in this award and acknowledged the efforts of individuals within the design team who worked to support Thiess John Holland, BrisConnections and City North Infrastructure to deliver the project in a constrained brownfield location in under four years of design and construction effort.