Foreshore Road Port Botany NSW Australia’s First Slipformed Concrete Road Pavement A 37-Year Review

Slipform construction of concrete road pavements began in the USA in the late 1940s. It was introduced in Australia in 1978/79 and is now the preferred form of construction and used wherever practicable. Australia’s first slipformed concrete pavement, Foreshore Road at Botany Bay in Sydney, about 4km in length with dual carriageways was constructed in 1978/79. It was a new road serving the Port Botany shipping container port in Sydney that is now Australia’s second largest container facility. The road is immediately adjacent to the salt water environment of Botany Bay. The pavement was Australia’s second major continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) using deformed longitudinal reinforcing bars.

This paper describes the pavement design and introduction of slipform paving and the equipment used. After 37 years of service, the paper also provides an overview of a number of aspects of the performance of this pavement; CRCP cracking, initial and current riding quality, cumulative truck traffic compared with design estimates, maintenance requirements and a comparison between its original thickness design and 2015 practice.