1. Analysis
The city of Melbourne is considered the Australian city with the highest growth population rate of the country creating new challenges to the city in universal services and traffic. From the 1970's there was an infrastructure project to build an express highway that communicates from north to south the city improving the transportation and introducing a relief to the existing roads of the city.
The Eastlink project developed and built a tolled highway of 39 km from Whitehorse to Donvale area in Melbourne. The stakeholders of the project were the Provincial Government of Victoria, the municipal government of Melbourne and the engineering and construction developers represented by Thiess John Holland. Several Non-Government Organizations has an important participation to help to protect the environment and carbon emission in the city (Eastlink, 2016).
The project schedule was four years since 2004 until 2008.
2. Requirements
The requirements of the project included the engineering, procurement, building and operation of the 39km of a tolled highway from the Whitehorse area until Frankston area of Melbourne, Victoria.
The engineering requirement of the project includes the revision of conceptual engineering given in the contract by the Transport Authorities of the Government of Victoria, the development of the basic engineering where it is possible to get the first calculations of materials, labor and equipment for the execution. The basic engineering allows the project to start in advance the procurement of the major equipment and raw materials for the execution process. After the basic engineering, the detailed engineering gives the exact metric calculations of materials and the final configuration of the tolled highway. The results of the engineering are drawings, technical specifications, bills of material and procedures. The engineering phase last 18 months of the project (Tutorial Point, 2014).
Procurement: The buying of all the materials, equipment and service contracting is possible thanks to the engineering information. Australian and South East companies had participation in this process.
Building Execution: Tiess John Holland subcontracted Australian companies for the execution of the physical project until the delivery.
Operation: The project has the condition to operate (and monetize) the tolled highway for 39 years. The maintenance of the highway is included in the Operation.
3. Design
The concept of the design is the 39 km of the new highway extension of the M3 highway. The sections of the highway which will help in the engineering, procurement and execution of the project are:
4. Implementation
The implementation plan for the Eastlink project needs to tie the erection of the highway with the operation and maintenance of the highway. The project had a final cost of 2.5 billion AUD. The toll sales of the first six months of operations were 93 million AUD. Using the net present value equation to calculate the return time of investment is possible to calculate the required sales per year.
Project cost: 2.5 billion AUD
Rate reference: 6%. (Australian bonds 3%).
With the sales of the first year, the project will be "paid" in 26 years. It is necessary to have yearly sales of 260 million AUD to have a feasible project. In fact, the second year of operation, the company needed to find a refinancing of the project due to problems in cash flow.
5. Testing – Integration
The testing phase of the project was from 29 June 2008 to July 27, 2008. In that month, the highway opened to the public without toll operations. In this phase, the company tested the toll configuration and the quality of civil works at real traffic conditions.
6. Delivery
The delivery was on July 28, 2008 when the toll system of the highway started to work.
REFERENCE LIST
Eastlink. (2016). Eastlink time better spent. Retrieved from Eastlink: http://www.eastlink.com.au/default.aspx
Tutorial Point. (2014). Project Contract Types. Retrieved from Tutorial Point: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/project_contract_types.htm
