West Gate Tunnel Project

Large infrastructure projects are booming in Victoria and across Australia. Within Melbourne’s inner- west suburbs, a 3-year major infrastructure project is underway which will redefine the shape of the city. The project aims to cater to Melbourne’s growing population for years to come.

To accommodate a critical aspect of the project, a safe and slip resistant temporary shared user pathway was required to redirect pedestrians and cyclists traffic around construction.

Works needed to be conducted on buried utility services next to the existing cycle and pedestrian pathway. For safety, these activities required that the pathway is closed for an extended period of time. While the path was closed, pedestrians would be deprived of other more convenient options. Redirecting users to existing alternative routes would have caused significant delays in their daily commutes. The public would have had to cross a busy freeway twice in order to return to their regular route. A diverted path adjacent to the original, and separated by concrete barriers was decided upon as the most suitable solution for all stakeholders to minimise travel delays.

Light-duty composite matting was installed to create the temporary shared-user pathway. The man-portable mats are measured at 1.2×1.2m and were ideal for pedestrians and cyclists. The path covered two sections, both spanning 400m each. The mats adhere to stringent safety standards set by authorities and in this case, were installed over crushed rock to level the ground.

The new shared-user temporary path was installed in 3 days. Ready for use soon after, both cyclists and pedestrians had a safe, non-obstructed route for their commutes. After being in place for over 2 months, the mats were uninstalled and ready for next stage in construction.