Right now work on the West Gate Tunnel Project is well underway, with 1500 tonnes of precast concrete tunnel lining, bridge and viaduct elements making up the tangle of elevated roads and underground tunnels coming from an unlikely location – 200 kilometres away at Benalla in north-east Victoria.
Precast concrete everywhere
The most obvious usage of precast concrete on the West Gate Tunnel Project is the tunnels themselves.
Each of the 3-lane tunnels requiring 2500 precast concrete segments to line the interior.
West Gate Tunnel Project photo
But the massive viaduct running above Footscray Road also requires tonnes of precast concrete.
Piers to hold up the two carriageways.
Then there is the bridge deck itself.
Assembled using a giant mobile gantry.
From shorter sections of precast concrete.
Enter LS Precast
In a paddock outside Benalla is a yard filled with massive pieces of precast concrete.
Cranes everywhere.
Each massive piece of precast concrete was created inside an bigger sheds.
Then stacked up outside.
Hundreds of tunnel lining segments waiting to make the trip to Melbourne.
Multiple times a day, A-double semi trailers departs the yard.
On the 200 kilometre, two and a half hour drive down the Hume Highway to Melbourne.
There they thread their way through the western suburbs to West Gate Tunnel work site.
The precast concrete elements that make up the elevated viaduct above Footscray Road are also manufactured at Benalla.
But since these elements are much larger.
West Gate Tunnel Project photo
They need to be transported by specialised low loader trucks.
West Gate Tunnel Project photo
To spread their extreme weight across the road surface.
West Gate Tunnel Project photo
What about trains
Benalla is on a railway line, and so is Melbourne – so why not transport all of these pieces of precast concrete by train? Well, that is exactly what the government said would happen.
New Benalla manufacturing facility to create hundreds of jobs for rural and regional Victorians
1 Feb 2018Victoria’s largest precast concrete manufacturing facility will be built in Benalla to supply major Victorian infrastructure projects, create 400 jobs and provide a massive boost to the local economy.
The $60 million facility will be operated by local businesses and will supply precast concrete for major projects including the West Gate Tunnel Project.
The facility will be capable of producing up to 1,500 tonnes of concrete product per day at peak capacity.
Benalla’s access to road and rail infrastructure means the facility is well placed to supply future Victorian and interstate projects, creating ongoing economic benefits to Benalla and surrounding communities.
To limit the number of trucks on local roads, the precast concrete segments for the West Gate Tunnel Project will be transported to Melbourne by freight train.
A new 700m rail siding will be built along the existing rail line in Benalla to provide a direct link between the precast facility and Melbourne.
The West Gate Tunnel Project will provide an estimated $11 billion boost to the Victorian economy, creating 6000 new jobs.
Construction of the Benalla precast facility is due to commence in March 2018, and it will be fully operational from October 2018.
With a railway siding constructed right into the casting plant at Benalla.
New Rail Siding For Benalla Precast Concrete Facility
25 September 2018Work has started on a huge rail siding to service the new precast concrete facility being built in Benalla.
Minister for Roads Luke Donnellan joined Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes to visit the worksite today, that will soon start producing precast concrete for the Andrews Labor Government’s West Gate Tunnel.
A new 700 metre siding will be created from the existing rail line to provide direct access to the precast facility.
New rail track will also be built – connected to the nearby freight line – so the concrete segments can be loaded directly from the precast facility on to freight trains and transported to Melbourne.
About 20 metre of new track has been laid and the existing train line is being upgraded ahead of the commissioning of the new siding in late 2018.
Construction is well underway on a new $60 million precast concrete facility in Benalla in readiness for concrete production.
The facility will initially provide over 65,000 concrete products for the massive West Gate Tunnel Project.
Excavators are currently levelling the site and the steel frames are going up for the three large sheds to be built on the site.
The precast facility will include a concrete batching plant, the large sheds for precast concrete production, offices, precast product storage, maintenance areas, a precast rail siding and 300 car parking spaces for workers.
The precast facility will be the largest of its kind in Victoria, capable of producing over 1,500 tonnes of concrete product per day at peak capacity.
The precast facility will create 400 jobs and will help ensure regional communities can benefit from the many opportunities created by the state’s booming infrastructure sector.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Roads and Road Safety Luke Donnellan
“It’s fantastic to see the progress being made on this, the largest precast concrete facility of its kind in Victoria.”
“Building the new rail siding means that we can get concrete products from Benalla to Melbourne via the existing rail network, avoiding heavy vehicle traffic and associated road impacts.”
Quotes attributable to Member for Northern Victoria Jaclyn Symes
“This is a massive investment in Benalla and we are already seeing jobs being created for local people with construction well underway.”
“This facility nearly didn’t happen due to the Liberal and National parties’ opposition to the project, I’m proud that my home town of Benalla and people throughout the north east share in the benefits of the Andrews Labor Government’s West Gate Tunnel.”
But by October 2020 their messaging had changed.
By having the concrete segment facility in Benalla, it ensured that regional Victoria benefited from our state’s infrastructure boom – creating jobs and providing a boost to the local economy.
The facility is supplying a variety of precast concrete products for the West Gate Tunnel Project and was selected due to its proximity to local quarries, its production capability and the easy access to Melbourne via transport networks . These products come in a range of sizes, shapes and weights.
A number of precast segments are not suitable to transport by freight train and will be delivered to West Gate Tunnel work sites by truck, using approved truck routes. The project team is exploring which precast segments are suitable to transport to Melbourne via rail. We’ll keep you updated through these channels as things progress.
The rail siding is clearly visible in the aerial view on Google Maps.
But as fas as I know, the rail siding at the Benalla precast yard has never been used by trains, and none of the precast segements have been transported by rail – however the cement used to make the segments did get moved by rail to Benalla station.
Footnote: some videos
Building the concrete precast facility at Benalla.
And flying over the completed yard.
Test fitting tunnel lining segments.
Delivering precast segments to the West Gate Tunnel work site.
Assembling the bridge columns.
And an animation showing how the bridge builder above Footscray Road works.
Footnote: other recent projects
The concrete segments for the Metro Tunnel were cast at a yard at Ravenhall, only 30 kilometres from their final destination.
While the precast concrete for the ‘Skyrail’ bridges were initially cast 50 kilometres away at Pakenham, and are now cast 70 kilometres away at Kilmore.
The reason why those segments are going by road instead of rail was reported by the Herald Sun on August 18, 2020: someone failed to do their homework and the segments were apparently too big for the rail tracks. The result was that road trains carrying the segments have been using Moore Street, Footscray, which is not gazetted for those vehicles … which in turn has prompted a new residents’ protest action.
From said article.
Very interesting piece. From the quote above, 5000 of the 65000 pieces are to be transported by rail, so that Siding might see some use after all!
I suspect the PR spokesperson was a little optimistic – with the tunnels almost complete as well as the bulk of the elevated roads, I don’t think there t really much left for them to deliver to Melbourne.
Once again thank you, another fascinating article. Something worth mentioning is the shear scale of the project has meant that many other precast yards in the state are also making components for the WGTP. I think one of your commenters last time may have hinted at this… Though they are far from the only ones.
Either due to lack of capacity or specialist skills at Benalla or just the short timeframes meant many components have been made elsewhere. Barriers, parapets, wall panels, beams of various varieties, bridge decks, cross heads and probably many others have all been manufactured by the general precast market in Victoria. Some with regular lead times, some with very short lead times when something unexpected has occurred and a critical switchover is looming.
The project also has a staging yard on Cherry Lane in Laverton North which is where the A Doubles end up and unload the segments etc. There also seem to be a variety of other yards in Footscray for storage and staging.
You may also find the QA processes interesting. Every component has to be produced according to the Vicroads 610 Standard for structural concrete. As part of this extensive records are kept about every single item. Shop drawings, check sheets, pre and post pour photographs and checks, concrete dockets, concrete test results, temperature when casting, stressing (for the prestressed components), and curing records are all amongst the data kept and provided to the project around the time of delivery. Every single piece is individually traceable.
Thanks for the extra information J – I’ve noticed some West Gate Tunnel project looking bits in the Westkon Precast yard at Albion, so they might also be involved.
Very interesting, thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it!