New Intercity Fleet Maintenance Facility

The

newest

generation

of

rolling-stock

to

enter

NSW’s

rail

network

SMEC was engaged by the John Holland Group (JHG) as the lead engineering consultant to provide engineering design services for the new Intercity Fleet Maintenance Facility. SMEC applied innovative design solutions that enabled the construction of heavy-duty foundations to support the train maintenance building and bridge abutments.

The New Intercity Fleet Maintenance Facility situated between Ourimbah and Tuggerah on the New South Wales (NSW) North Coast Line provides expansive service and maintenance support for the newest generation of rolling-stock to enter service on NSW’s rail network. SMEC was engaged by JHG as the lead engineering consultant to provide engineering design services for a range of different construction aspects. During the construction of the project Transport of New South Wales discovered challenging working conditions, involving working with deep, soft and compressible soils.

Innovative design solutions

To overcome the challenges faced by Transport of New South Wales, SMEC applied innovative design solutions that enabled the construction of heavy-duty foundations to support the train maintenance building and bridge abutments (for heavy vehicle and rail access). To minimise any impact on the local community from noise caused by traditional pile foundations, SMEC developed and implemented a slab-on-ground solution which utilised coal bottom ash, a by-product of power generation. The use of light-weight coal bottom ash fill will help to reduce the settlement of the slab over time. Combined with extensive construction phase instrumentation and monitoring this allowed for the use of a slab foundation for the main facility, rather than less efficient, and noisy, piled slab construction.

Client

Transport for New South Whales

End Date

2020

Location

Australia

Expertise

Transport Planning & Advisory Roads & Highways

Innovative design solutions

Successful project delivery

SMEC provided engineering design services for the civil works, combined serviced routes (CSR), utilities, buildings and structures, bridges, and piling design. SMEC also provided verification of the new access bridge and roadworks for enabling work, geotechnical investigations, and reporting.

SMEC’s detailed design included a streamline combination of clean and uncongested design, improving safety from an operational and maintenance point of view. The outcomes at the end of the project successfully entail a new facility design that could accommodate for:

Capability of heavy and light maintenance of rolling-stock on four maintenance roads
Standing room on four outside tracks, each accommodating one long NIF train (205m)
New wheel lathe road, adjacent wheel lathe building, bio and graffiti wash facility and associated roads
Ancillary buildings providing systems to support the operation of the facility – including a train wash building, traction substation, transformer padmounts, security building, waste storage building, signal bungalows and location cases
Access overbridge and associated roadworks to site
Service relocation works
New Turpentine Road Bridge to accommodate two new lines to the train wash and maintenance facility.