SOUTH WEST QUEENSLAND
A RESEAL CONTRACT LIKE NO OTHER: HOW EXTERNAL FACTORS UNITED IN UNPRECEDENT FASHION procedures were implemented that made the completion of the contract a bit more interesting.
Cameron Ives GenEng Solutions
This paper goes through the mindset and actions taken by myself as TMR Administrators Representative and Sprayed Sealing Designer during these events. Tech Note 186
Available in ANNUAL CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
Abstract: Twelve months since the report into the seal failure where cars and trucks became ‘glued’ to the newly spray sealed road surface of Millaa Millaa-Malanda Road, an hour and a half south of Cairns, two of my reseals contracts in the TMR Darling Downs Region commenced during a severe drought phase. Additionally, they were impacted by bushfires including periods where two National Highways were closed at different times forcing traffic to utilise 2 OSCR roads (Gatton Clifton Road & Millmerran Inglewood Road) whilst reseal works were occurring. This was followed by a wet weather and flooding event delaying works pushing works from Level 1 into Level 2 of TMR’s new Tech Note 186 Sealing in Cold Weather implement as a recommendation after the Millaa Millaa-Malanda Road failure. At the end of the contract a Worldwide Pandemic COVID 19 lockdown and other
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August 2019 saw the introduction of the new TMR Technical Note 186 – Sealing in Cold Weather Conditions. For the Darling Downs District this meant Level 2 restrictions would be triggered for most areas in April and require would require additional mitigation measures to be documented and implement in a Spraying Sealing Management Plan. 2019-20 Reseal Contracts CN-12630 Reseals in TRC area and CN-12631 Reseals in the WDRC areas were the two contracts that I was responsible for as the Administrators Representative. Both were worth approximately $2-3M each. These were two of five contracts to be delivered during the 2019-2020 TMR Darling Downs Reseal Program and all contracts were the first in the regions to be delivered following the implementation of Tech Note 186. The original program from the contractor had a practical completion date for both CN-12630 and CN-12631 as 31st March 2020. Therefore, the implementation of Tech Note 186 wasn’t considered an issue at the beginning of the contracts.
ENGINEERING FOR PUBLIC WORKS | DEC 2021
Drought Conditions / Bushfire Warnings The region was in the midst of a drought and had current high bushfire warnings. Other local governments around the region had suspended their reseal program. TMR decided to continue with the program and implement to following conditions that were toolboxed by the contractor. • Heating bitumen, i.e. gas burners on bitumen tankers and the sprayer - the first shouldn’t be a problem as the heaters are pretty much sealed and no foreign object (i.e. dry grass) can get to the flame. Also, they should be parked on cleared stockpile sites and never left unattended. • Parking vehicles with hot exhausts in areas with long grass. • Bush fire preparedness and response - if there is a fire nearby, suggest we issue a stop work direction, remove any restrictions to 2-way traffic flow, make sure the site is safe and leave the area. • Priority for Emergency Vehicles Pechey Maclagan Road CN-12630 was the first contract to commence and the first road to be resealed was Pechey Maclagan Road (AADT 290). A 20km 14mm S/S C170 seal both sides of Goombungee with a D/D 14/7mm seal through Goombungee. Pechey MacLagan Road runs west off the New England Highway just south of the township of Crows Nest. Shortly before the reseal
