BMD JV wins $47m freeway contract

An engineering alliance comprising BMD Constructions, CIMIC Group's Ventia and Arup has secured a $47 million contract for the ‘smart freeways’ project on the Kwinana Freeway.

The SmartWays Alliance will use technology to convert the emergency lane of the freeway from Canning Highway to the Narrows Bridge into a full-time traffic lane.

The project is being jointly funded by the federal ($37.6 million) and state ($9.4 million) governments.

The ‘smart freeway’ is earmarked for operation by early 2020.

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said the project would deliver time savings of up to 10 minutes for some road users.

“In a constrained location where the railway and Swan River prevent traditional widening works, Smart Freeways offer a great solution to help alleviate and manage congestion, while also improving safety for road users,” she said.

“This initiative has been highly successful in other cities in Australia and overseas, with Main Roads WA drawing on expertise from across the country and the UK to inform a Smart Freeways solution suitable for Perth.”

SmartWays beat the Intelligent Transport Alliance and the Perth Smart Alliance for the work.

ITA comprised CIMIC Group subsidiary CPB Contractors, Lendlease Services, SICE and Jacobs Engineering, while PSA was an alliance between Georgiou Group and WSP.

The upgrade is one component of a broader $140 million project, which also includes the widening of Kwinana Freeway northbound from Russell Road to Roe Highway, and the widening of the Mitchell Freeway southbound from Cedric Street to Vincent Street.

Both of those contracts were won by BMD Constructions earlier this year.

Separately, a joint venture between Ventia and international company Tyco was awarded a $230 million Main Roads contract for electrical infrastructure maintenance last month.

Ventia is a Sydney-based infrastructure group and was formed in 2015 as a 50-50 partnership between Cimic Group and asset manager Apollo Global Management.