Construction

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Victoria (MTA) operates a fleet of about 685 electric passenger tramcars, over a street network of some 220 km of single track in Melbourne. The MTA also operates about 290 diesel buses, over a network of about 270street-km. Together, the two systems make more than...

The Housing Commission of New South Wales has developed engineering designs and standards for urban subdivision over a period of more than 30 years. The Commission has developed practical and economical road designs as a result of this experience. The larger-scale subdivisions include several types of roads, ranging from quite...

Roundabouts are being constructed to provide improved traffic facilities at a variety of intersections ranging from local collector/distributor roads to arterial roads and highways. They increase overall community amenity by reducing traffic speeds and accidents — by limiting the number of conflict points the potential for collisions is reduced and...

When the owners of properties fronting Roma Parade in the Shire of Sherbrooke, Victoria requested construction of their private road, it posed real problems for the Shire’s designers. Roma Parade is very steep havi ng a 67 metre fall in level over its 248 metres length. Their final design included...

A major reduction in traffic congestion has been achieved in the Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg (11 km north-east of the CBD) with the recent opening of the Bell—Banksia link road. The $40m Federally- funded project reduces heavy through traffic on several local roads and will reduce road transport costs for...

Throughout Australia, concrete safety barriers are being used to improve the safety of existing roads and to provide a built-in safety feature in new roadways. When used as med ian barriers, their most common ro ]e, they minimise the risk of head-on collisions, the type of accident which accounts for...

Over the last twenty years municipal planners have gradually accepted the need to plan and implement cycleways for commuter and recreational use. This year saw the release of the new edition of Guide /o Traffic Engineering Practice. Bicycles by AUSTROADS. This technical publication was written with the cooperation of all...

The Adelaide City Council has recently made extensive use of concrete interlocking block paving in several projects. Landscape design principles were applied in the improvement of several inner-city, largely-residential streets where the aims were to improve their appearance and to make them safer for pedestrians. The two major projects were...

The AMCORD URBAN strategy of the 1990s highlights the need to offer greater and more cost-effective choice of urban housing of quality. Along with this need, the study recognised the relevance of infrastructure in terms of physical and social elements.

Concrete is being increasingly used in the Sydney area to provide a sub-base for flexible road pavements. Typically, the pavement comprises 150 mm of plain concrete sub-base beneath a conventional roadbase and a surfacing of asphaltic concrete. Figure 2 shows the general form of pavement construction. The concrete sub-base provides...

About 2700 delegates attended the five-day Congress which consisted of plenary sessions, committee reports and technical tours. The Association’s national infra— structure engineer attended the Congress to assess the relevance of new road technology for Australia. The Congress was organised by PIARC (a more detailed explanation of PIARC can be...

Balmain Road is one of the oldest roads in the Municipality of Leichhardt, about 5 km west of the Central Business District of Sydney. The road provides an important link between Parramatta Road and Victoria Road which are two major arterials. This year, the road was scheduled for reconstruction. After...