Eastlink Project
The Eastlink Project was the conception, design, procurement and construction of a tolled section of 39 km from the Whitehorse-Manningham in the Nunawading-Donvale area of Melbourne to Frankston in Seaford. The highway has a pair of three lines each with an average time from the first to last station of 25-30 minutes. The tolled section opened to public Sunday, 29 June 2008 on a free basis and one month later the toll system started to work.
The Eastlink Project has its origins in the 1969 Transport Plan of the city, but the approval of the project was in 1999. The most important stakeholders of this project are the Government of Victoria, the Municipal Government of Melbourne, Environmental Organizations and Construction companies on the project.
The Government of Victoria was the most important project fund provider. The total cost of the project was 2.5 billion of Australian dollars or 1.9 billion dollars at current prices.
The Municipal Government of Melbourne is the responsibility of the city plan and the coordination of the different entities on the project with the citizenship, traffic, public transport, public services and other.
Environmental Organizations that represented a challenge for the project due to the consequences of the project in the physical environment, the Carbone dioxide emissions of the construction and operations of the highway section.
Construction companies: Those have the goal to execute the physical project, including the civil works, land preparation, erection, concrete and steel works, painting and delivery.
Project Delivery System of the Eastlink
The Project Delivery System was under the model of Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) that means that the responsible company Thiess John Holland was responsible for the entire project from the design, procurement, construction and operation of the highway excluding some risks that are shared with the Government of Victoria .
The company Tiess John Holland have the right to subcontract all the activities below its responsibility as the engineering phase to one or several engineering companies, the procurement of equipment and materials to Australian and Asia Pacific Providers, the construction to local companies and the operation with a toll system provided by SICE.
The previous contract type was selected by the government to give an incentive to the bidders to apply to this project and guarantee a return on investment in the future. Commitment to the company from the beginning of the project to the operation and monetization is the best incentive of project delivery in time opportunity and quality. The use of another project system as the separation of the design, construction and operation of three different companies may cause disruptions between one and another step of the project and potential cost deviations from the budget .
The company has the right to exploit the tolled section of the driveway for 39 years from the month after the aperture of the highway until the year 39. That time, the return of the investment is shared between the Government of Victoria and Tiess John Holland.
One of the features of the project is a 500 hectares park bigger than the New York Central Park to counteract the footprint of the project on the physical environment and the additional carbon emission due to the increase of automobile flow on the highway. The project included state-of-the-art tunnels and bridges avoiding natural obstacles and existing constructions.
Bibliography
Eastlink, 2016. Eastlink time better spent. [Online] Available at: http://www.eastlink.com.au/default.aspx [Accessed: 16 March 2016].
Tutorial Point, 2014. Project Contract Types. [Online] Available at: http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/project_contract_types.htm[Accessed: 16 March 2016].
