December 2017
Welcome to Main Roads Alumni Newsletter. Sharing Main Roads achievements.
ARSC conference showcasing our safety work
The Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC) held in Perth this year wasa huge success with over 650 delegates from around Australia, New Zealand and Asia (including Cambodia and India) attending.
ARSC is the largest road safety dedicated conference in the Southern Hemisphere and this year's theme "Expanding our horizons"sought all levels of government and community, from city to bush, to collaborate aswe move "Towards Zero".
Main Roads had the opportunity to provide presentations, which were well attended and attracted much attention and interaction.
Dr Fritha Argus, Main Roads' Research and Data Coordinator, was awardedthe "Best Paper by a New Practitioner Award" for her paper on Road Safety Management at Main Roads Western Australia.
The award was based on the paper and its presentation by Dr Argus at the event, where a number of papers were presented and judged. The winning paper, in which Fritha took out the award for, outlined Main Roads Road Safety Management System, ROSMA, being the first of its kind and the award recognises the importance of this work to the entire Road Safety community.
Another award winner, Dr Kyle Chow, Main Roads' Research Fellow at Curtin-Monash Accident Research Centre (CMARC) was honoured with the Conference Theme Award for his paper on An evaluation of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Rural Run-off road crash program in Western Australia. This work was done in collaboration with Road Safety Branch.
This year's ARSC event has proven to be very engaging andone that showcased Western Australia programs, research and activities whilst giving Main Roads staff, our WA industry and public sector partners a chance to see what other states and countries are doing in the road safety space. Overall it was a win-win-win for Main Roads and Western Australia.
Signal rollout complete
The rollout of traffic signal enhancements under the Traffic Congestion Management Program for 2017 was successfully completed at the end of October 2017.
Flashing yellow caution lights to turning traffic were rolled out to reinforce the 'give way to pedestrian' law and improve driver behaviour. You can visit the TCMP program map to view the locations where the yellow 'caution' lights have been installed.
Right turn filtering where the red right-turn arrow was turned off during hours of 9pm to 6am to allow drivers to turn right on a green light when safe to do so to eliminate inefficiencies was installed at eight locations following a successful trial on Canning Highway when traffic volumes were lower. You can see the locations here.
You can see how the flashing yellow light for pedestrians works by clicking on the video above.
Wishing you a safe, happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous new year!
Our teams helped TELETHON effort
Above: Our TELETHON team l-r: Sam Xanthis, Nicole Walton, Kama Bowman, Rebecca Bowman, Chris Jacobs, Sophie Andrews, Aaron Robinson, Karen Anning and non-MRWA helper, Mykal Robinson(team member Tegan Hancock was not present for this photo).
We are proud to have played a small part in the record breaking TELETHON with a Main Roads team, being one of many helping to take calls from the public donating money. The total raised this yearmanaged to beat last year's by $10 million raising a staggering $36,431,381 million in this 50th anniversary year of TELETHON.
The Main Roads team comprised: Chris Jacobs, Sophie Andrews, Sam Xanthis, Nicole Walton, Kama Bowman, Tegan Hancock, Karen Anning, Rebecca Bowman and Aaron Robinson - thanks to everyone for your great work. Team member, Rebecca said it was a great experience which she would recommend to others in Main Roads next year. "I especially enjoyed hearing from the very elderly ladies who rang through and were so encouraging of our efforts - it really made my Sunday to hear from them!" Chris Jacobs said he was very touched by the spirit of TELETHON and the willingness of people, even including children donating their pocket money and those struggling financially who still wanted to give a little something.
The TELETHON activities kicked off at Main Roads whenFat Catvisited TOCto help Bernie Dimanlig with her livetraffic reports on Sunrise andby giving a helping hand to theTOC operators and crew during morning peak.
Photo below: Fat Catassisted the TOC crew on Friday 20 October during morning peak
Celebrating delivery of New Norcia Bypass
A celebratory morning tea was heldto thank those involved in the development and delivery of the New Norcia Bypass, part of the Great Northern Highway – Muchea to Wubin project. New Norcia precinct is the only operating monastic township in Australia and a place of international heritage significance.
A/MD Peter Woronzow, EDCNR John Erceg, PD Norm Fox, AbbotBernard Rooney and others involved in the project met at the scenic lookout, which was strategically located along the 6km bypass to provide a magnificent view over the historic New Norcia precinct. Morning tea followed at the New Norcia Hotel.
The project was a great example of collaboration. The Benedictine community worked closely with our integrated project team of Main Roads, Jacobs and Arup to plan the bypass alignment and donated the land required. Decmil have completed the construction to a high standard. The Shire of Victoria Plains was instrumental throughout the planning process and our project team delivered the project on time and with minimal disruption.
Traffic has been running on the new bypass since mid-2017 and will allow the Benedictine community to implement its Landscape Master Plan and help preserve the historic buildings by removing heavy vehicles from town, reducing noise and vibration, improving pedestrian safety and restoring tranquillity to the precinct.
Further upgrades are happening as part of the Great Northern Highway – Muchea to Wubin project. The 21km Miling Straight is currently under construction and the next contracts to get underway are a 16km stretch through Pithara, a 9km bypass of the town of Miling and a 13 km section extending north from Muchea.
Photo below: AbbotBernard Rooney addresses visitors at the celebration. Norm Fox background.
Bushfire risk management review
Photo above: Branch cross collaboration under way with a review of Main Roads’ bushfire risk management approach
The Network Management Branch has undertaken a review of Main Roads' approach to bushfire risk management.
A need had earlierbeen identified to review existing operational guidelines to better reflect Main Roads' obligations under theduty of care relating to bushfire risk management.
Additionally, theBranch was tasked with implementing recommendations from the “Perth Hills Bushfire 2011 – Shared Responsibility" (Keelty Report) and the State Hazard Plan for Fire (WESTPLAN-FIRE).
The review was undertaken withinternal stakeholders including Property Management, Environment Branch and the Regions. As a result, the Operational Procedure has been finalised andis now available.
For the purposes of bushfire risk management, Main Roads' critical assets have been identified as those which fall within bushfire prone areas as defined by DFES:
· 24 hour rest bays,
· Timber and timber hybrid bridges,
· Communication cabinets and traffic signals,
· Environmentally sensitive areas and
· Regional offices and operationally important facilities in depots.
Other Main Roads assets have been considered but they have been assessed as non-critical for reasons such as:
· Not susceptible to fire,
· Low repair or replacement cost,
· Easily replaced in a short timescale,
· Non-life threatening,
· Low impact on Main Roads fulfilling its operational obligations,
· Alternate asset/facility readily available,
· Mitigation easily available i.e. temporary signage, and/or
· Low impact on road users.
Main Roads is working to include bush fire prone areas as a layer within theIntegratedMapping System (IMS) for ease of reference to map our critical assets.
New home for old Cork tree
An old Cork tree, believed to be about 90 years old and planted as part of early European settlement, has been carefully relocated as part of the works for the NorthLink Central Section. The tree was located in the area of the Promenade Interchange near the northbound off rampand had to be removed.
Moving the tree was a delicate multi-stage operation. It included the following steps:
· Preparation ofthe root ball by excavation then wrapping the root ball in fabric
· Pruning the canopy
· Drilling and inserting a lifting bar through the trunk
· Removal ofadditional roots
· Lifting the tree by crane onto a low loader
· Tie down and secure the tree
· Transportation ofthe tree approximately 2 km
· Lifting the tree from the low loader into the ground at the translocation site by crane
· Handing over the tree with aftercare instructions to Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPAW).
The tree was relocated to the proposed Dick Perry Reserve off Gnangara Road, Lexia (on Pessoa Road) by the Great Northern Connect, contractors for the central section of NorthLink WA.