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MAGAZINE OF MOTTMACDONALD
ISSUE 49
g
r
e
ingenious
solutions
@mottmacdonald
www.mottmac.com
Sustainability:
switch not
required.
We build consideration for the triple
bottom line commercial, social and
environmental sustainability into every project,
from the outset. Sustainability is part of our
everyday thinking. Its not something we ever
turn off and underpins our entire culture. As this
publication shows, harnessing the transformative
power of technology for the benefit of our clients
is just one result of driving forward sustainability
in everything we do.
Keith Howells
Mott MacDonald Group Chairman
18
14
Protecting steel-framed
mansonry-clad structures
is now faster, easier and
more cost-effective than
ever before, thanks to a new
material applied using a
simple grout gun.
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46
We laser scanned an
operational steel mill to
build a detailed BIM
landscape that will smooth
a major upgrade project
and become an exceptional
asset management tool.
To combat TB a disease
that afflicts 9M more people
every year the carriers
must first be found. Were
supporting a programme that
found an extra 18,000 people
with the disease in its first
year alone.
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2
16
10 innovative technologies
that will help advance the
low carbon agenda.
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44
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Dr Andrew Heather
Water and environment portfolio manager
andrew.heather@mottmac.com
DOMINOES
This article appeared first in The Telegraph
INFRASTRUCTURE
4
CO2
Materials, minerals and mining industries
must confront CO2 emissions to assure
continued commercial viability.
Industrial activities excluding power
generation account for 25% of worldwide
CO2 emissions, according to the International
Energy Agency. Reducing emissions throughout
the materials, minerals and mining (MMM)
industries, which are responsible for a significant
portion of these activities, is an essential step
toward mitigating climate change.
The situation is far from straightforward however.
Carbon-emitting chemical reactions are central to
many industrial processes. Research partnership
Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage reports
that 25% of industrial emissions are inherent to
process chemistry of key materials. While a suite
of carbon-cutting measures is available such
as increasing energy efficiency, making more
use of renewable energy sources and greening
6
INCUBATING
INNOVATI N
2
1
Energy
from waste
Intervates close coupled
configuration gasification
module turns sewage into
pellet fuel, which is burned
in a combined heat and
power plant. The plant
produces electricity, which
can be sold to the grid,
and heat, which is used
to dewater the incoming
sewage to produce pellets
to fuel the process.
www.intervate.co.uk
Transforming
robots install
underfloor
insulation
Many houses in the UK
were traditionally built
with floorboards laid over
uninsulated voids at ground
level. To improve energy
efficiency and reduce heat
loss, many older properties
have been retrofitted with
wall and loft insulation
and upgraded doors and
windows. But floor voids
have generally been
overlooked, partly due to
a dearth of information
about how much heat from
the home escapes through
these spaces, and partly
because of the considerable
disruption involved in taking
up all the floorboards. Q-Bot
is working to address both
problems. The company is
conducting studies using
a series of test homes in
London to analyse heat
losses through the floor
and aims to avoid disruptive
installation by using robots
which are posted into the
underfloor void by removing
the ventilating air bricks.
These devices then unfold
and trundle through the
void, spraying the underside
of the floorboards with
foam insulation. The robots
can be preprogrammed or
remote controlled. They
will be nearly unnoticeable
by the inhabitants of the
property theyre working
at and will cut a typical
installation by two weeks.
www.q-bot.co
Cooling makes
solar panels
Better solvents more efficient
PV panels produce
to capture CO2 electricity from sunlight.
Experts in the emerging
field of carbon capture and
storage (CCS) are working
out how best to capture CO2
emissions from coal and
gas fired power stations,
to allow the facilities
to continue producing
electricity but with far less
impact on the environment.
A popular approach being
investigated uses a solvent
to absorb the CO2 from
the power station exhaust.
The solvent is then heated
to release the CO2, which
can then be compressed
and sent offsite. However,
as much as 50% of a
plants power output can
be required to drive the
process. C-Capture is
working on a new type of
solvent which works at
much lower temperatures.
This will reduce the load
on the power station itself,
making the process much
more energy efficient and
cost-effective. The new
product is also far more
benign than the chemicals
used today, making it better
for health and safety and
the environment too.
www.c-capture.co.uk
Coal substitute
Antacos hypothermal
carbonisation process
produces a coal substitute
from sewage, garden
rubbish and agricultural
waste. The process mixes
solid waste together, adds
water, and then cooks the
soup. The resulting sludge
is dewatered and turned
into pellet form, suitable for
burning in power stations.
The product could be a
direct substitute for coal in
power stations and a variety
of other industries.
www.antaco.co.uk
Electrifying
sewage
Anaerobic digestion is
a well-used method for
breaking down sewage.
One of the products of the
process is biogas, which
can be used as a fuel to
produce electricity on site,
powering the treatment
plant itself. Blue Sky Bio
has found that electrolysing
sewage before digestion
can produce even more
gas, but developing a
robust and maintenancefree equipment setup is
more challenging. Various
unusual materials are
currently being assessed
for their ability to transmit
the electricity into the
sewage most effectively
while avoiding damage to
the device.
Producing
fuel from
whisky waste
Scotland is famed for its
whisky, and a new process
could make the liquor
even more desirable. The
distilling process creates
waste products which, says
Celtic Renewables, could
be converted into a cocktail
of chemicals called ABE
(acetone, butanol, ethelene),
yielding cost-effective
biofuels. This solution could
therefore not only deal with
the waste from the whisky
industry but also provide a
saleable energy byproduct.
www.celtic-renewables.com
Turning the
tide into
energy with
floating
turbines
Using the power of the
sea to generate electricity
makes a lot of sense.
Unlike the wind or solar
resources, tidal energy is
constant, but it has proved
difficult to harness. Tidal
turbines have traditionally
been mounted on monopile
or tripod structures, which
are difficult and expensive
to install and which limit
installation to relatively
shallow waters, which arent
always the most effective
places to generate energy.
Sustainable Marine Energy
has developed a solution
using turbines mounted on
subsurface buoys, tethered
to the seabed with cables
and anchors. Construction
difficulty and cost are vastly
reduced, maintenance is
much easier the turbines
can simply be swapped
over and towed to shore
for servicing and the
units can be sited in the
ideal position to maximise
power production.
Better vertical
axis wind
turbines
While vertical axis wind
turbines offer many
advantages such as
reducing work-at-height
maintenance by siting the
gearbox and generator
closer to the ground and
presenting a very small
geographical footprint
they have traditionally
been far less efficient than
widely-used horizontal axis
turbines. However, revising
the geometry of the turbine
blades and the method and
material of manufacture
could eliminate the
disparity, believes X-Wind
Power, which is working on
a new vertical axis turbine
to equal the efficiency of
conventional wind turbines.
www.x-windpower.com
10
Cutting CO2
when creating
chemicals
Precipitated calcium
carbonate, widely used in
the construction and paper
industries, and ammonium
sulphate, which the fertiliser
industry needs, are energy
intensive to produce.
Carbon Cycle is developing
a process that produces
these two in-demand
chemicals by combining
gypsum, ammonia and CO2.
The result is a process
that cuts the CO2 required
to make the materials
compared to conventional
production and could have
wider carbon capture
and storage applications
in the future.
www.sustainablemarine.com
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11
Space
invaders
GAMES VS WORK
Civil engineering is one
of the industries best
placed to soak up the
benefits of the gaming
worlds technological
innovations. The
possibilities are tantalising:
for example, gesture
control devices like those
seen in the Nintendo
Wii and Microsoft Kinect
consoles offer a more
hands-on way for
designers to work with
3D models. They can
enable construction
technique on a number of
projects, including Severn
Trents Droitwich sewage
treatment works, says
Mott MacDonald senior
civil engineer Peter Davies.
We started with a paper
design review, then moved
toward this interactive
format. The opportunity
to autonomously explore
the model meant Severn
Trent was able to give
much better informed, and
therefore more meaningful,
design feedback.
EARLY ADOPTERS
One of the best examples of crossover between
gaming and BIM lies in the relatively simplistic
game Minecraft. Often described as digital
Lego, it allows users to build structures from
a variety of cubic blocks representing different
materials. Clay, sandstone, wood and iron are
among the many materials options, as well as
products such as doors, stairs and rail tracks.
Players can co-operate via the internet to design
and build together.
Despite its stylised, boxy appearance,
Minecrafts emphasis on collaborative built
environment design makes it something of a
laymans BIM. This was spotted by the UN,
which has earmarked 30 projects for consultation
under the global Block by Block programme, a
partnership between the UN Human Settlements
Programme (UN-Habitat) and Minecrafts
developer, Mojang, to increase participation
in the design of public space refurbishments.
In countries including Haiti, Nepal, India and
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CLOSE PROTECTION
Weve developed a new material
that makes installing corrosionbusting cathodic protection to steel
framed buildings cheaper, easier
and more sustainable.
Masonry clad, steel framed
structures sprang up in cities
all over the world from the
1880s to the 1940s. It was
the construction method of
choice for the great civic and
commercial buildings of the
age, many of which are now
heritage structures.
But theres a problem with steel:
corrosion. The rust produced
expands to many times the
volume of the original steel.
The forces created displace the
stonework, resulting in unsightly
cracking and even loss of
structural integrity. We pioneered
the use of electrochemical
cathodic protection in the 1990s
to tackle this problem, but
the process has been limited
in application and required
specialist installers until now.
ASSAULT OF BATTERIES
The process of corrosion
effectively generates a series
of tiny batteries within steel.
At the anode end of each battery,
electrons are released and metal
is lost. At the opposite end, the
cathode, electrons are taken up,
which provides protection to the
metal. This is where the phrase
cathodic protection (CP) is
taken from. The CP process
prevents steel from corroding by
passing a small electrical current
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+ ve
ve
1. Rake out existing mortar
POINTING IN THE
RIGHT DIRECTION
Geopolymer mortar was
the answer. Geopolymer
is essentially artificial stone
manufactured using a range
of industrial byproducts,
Paul explains. Early geopolymers
had to be heated in order to
react, making them impractical
for site-based faade repair and
protection. When Professor
Mangat at the UKs Sheffield
Hallam University developed
a geopolymer that cured at
room temperature, an
opportunity was created.
As a visiting professor at the
university, I was able to work with
Professor Mangat and a team
that included contractor C-Probe
Systems, PhD student Chinh
Nguyen and Mott MacDonald
infrastructure specialists,
Paul explains.
While geopolymers made sense
as a CP application method,
they are natural insulators;
the conduction of electricity is
CIVIC TRIAL
When the 1930s stone clad,
steel frame structure of Leeds
Civic Hall, UK, began to show
corrosion-related problems, it
offered the perfect opportunity
to trial our new CP system. The
old mortar was first raked out
and a feedwire laid in the gaps.
Then, the geopolymer was mixed
on site and gunned in, just as
it would be for any repointing
exercise. Lastly, the low voltage
DC current was induced, making
the feedwire positive and the steel
frame negative. The system has
been shown to work perfectly.
COMMERCIAL CONVICTION
The first commercial application
of our CP geopolymer mortar
system was to the oldest
skyscraper in Kansas City, US
the Commerce Trust Building,
which was designed and built
in 1906. The main entrance
was showing signs of
displacement and cracking.
Local engineers were keen
to use CP but were reluctant
to drill holes into the historic
structure which was masonry
clad both inside and out. As
there was no hidden rear face
to the entrance, holes to install
anodes could not be drilled
from the inside either. This made
the project a natural candidate
for our geopolymer mortar
CP system, which has been
installed and commissioned,
and is working well.
Paul Lambert
Technical director, materials
and corrosion engineering
paul.lambert@mottmac.com
15
WHEEL OF FORTUNE
A free, interactive online tool that guides stakeholders through
retrofit options caused quite a stir when it was presented at a
recent Mott MacDonald event.
Excellent retrofit should be achievable on
projects of all sizes and budgets, says Adrian
Leaman, co-founder of the Usable Buildings Trust.
That can be easier said than done, however.
Building retrofit is no simple matter, when every
alteration has potential unintended consequences
elsewhere. Adding loft insulation can increase
electrical fire risk, for example; installing air
source ground heat pumps can create significant
noise pollution; and draughtproofing windows can
result in inadequate ventilation. Untangling this
web of impacts can be challenging for experts,
let alone laymen.
Help is now at hand in the form of a free tool:
the interactive, web-based Responsible Retrofit
Guidance Wheel. After inputting information
on their buildings heritage type, condition,
weather exposure and energy consumption
as well as their own levels of knowledge
users can browse a wide range of possible
retrofit measures and immediately see their
potential impacts and risks.
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REHAB:
Demothballing an offshore facility built in 1967
was tricky, but will help supercharge oilfield production.
HOW WERE ADDING VALUE
Client ADMA-OPCO
When our client, the oilfield operator ADMAOPCO, embarked on a suite of upgrades to
lift oilfield production by 100,000 barrels of
oil per day, plans included restoring a disused
platform: the Zakum Central Super Complex.
The facility was first commissioned in 1967
and mothballed in 1986 bringing it back to
life was a significant challenge.
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Hisham Alami
Managing director, oil and gas, Abu Dhabi
hisham.alami@mottmac.com
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Photos: AMDA-OPCO
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FINDING 3M
LOST PEOPLE
TB should not exist its
a well-known disease with
particularly challenging
in many places.
National healthcare
programmes in
developing or war-torn
countries often rely
on people travelling to
clinics. But sporadic or
absent symptoms makes
self-diagnosis difficult,
while health facilities may
be many miles away.
Together, these factors
mean that TB is not
identified, not caught and
can spread unchecked.
Enter TB Reach, a
programme that provides
funding through grants
of up to US$1M to
support or scale up locally
created solutions that
make use of innovative
technologies and
techniques to find TB.
Finding infected people is
the first of four essential
steps identified by the
Stop TB Partnership, an
international association
of 1000 NGOs, civil
society organisations,
government programmes,
research foundations and
private companies.
Steps two to four involve
identifying new ways
to control its spread,
harnessing cost-effective
technology and raising
awareness of the disease.
Funding for the TB Reach
programme is drawn from
a CA$120M grant from
the Canadian Department
of Foreign Affairs, Trade &
Development.
TB Reach offers one
year grants to applicants
already present in the
target country, Gemma
explains. It launched in
January 2010; the first
four waves of funding
have helped deliver 143
projects in 46 countries,
pinpointing vulnerable
or disadvantaged
populations and places
where the disease can
spread rapidly, such as
workplaces, schools
and prisons.
INJECTING RIGOUR
Our role is to monitor
and evaluate live projects,
says Gemma. Were able
to spot problems early
and help keep everything
on track, ensuring that
people are getting the
best possible help and
providing quantifiable
evidence of results to the
donor organisations.
Our team must
understand the context of
the projects, geographies
and populations in order
to help fine tune activities.
We work closely with the
Royal Tropical Institute
(KIT) in the Netherlands,
calling on a team of
TB specialists based in
Europe, Africa and Asia,
Gemma explains. Each
consultant develops
intimate knowledge of
the local geographies
and demographics of the
projects in their portfolio,
enabling them to suggest
solutions that strengthen
project performance and
contribute to success.
Each project reports
quarterly. Our team
produces a final technical
report summarising the
results after 12 months of
project implementation.
Every piece of work is
peer reviewed.
Streamlining the process
has been important for
efficiency and costeffectiveness. Gemma
explains: Working
closely with our client,
we designed and built
an online interface that
allows the in-country
programmes to upload
data easily and when
is most convenient
rather than at set times.
We download it when
required, making the
collating and analysing
DETECTION UP BY 33%
TB Reach has delivered
marked results so far.
The first wave of funding
resulted in projects that
covered a total population
of 114M and found an
additional 18,043 people
with TB people who
We will continue to
support and evaluate the
programme, ensuring
that funding is being best
used to find the missing
3M people living with TB,
Gemma concludes.
Gemma Nicholas
Health project specialist
gemma.nicholas@
mottmac.com
The TB Reach
programme has bought
GeneXpert equipment
in bulk, to bring the
unit price down through
economy of scale. The
machines can deployed
as truck-mounted
installations too, meaning
that the laboratory can be
taken to rural areas.
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FAR BELOW
THE FALLS
Horseshoe Falls
Shotcrete
Grout
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Waterproof membrane
Grout
Tunnel segment lining
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PEG
HOLE
The plant processes effluent for 70,000
people but our client wanted to up capacity
to meet the needs of 100,000 people
We retrofitted
disused facilities at a wastewater
treatment plant in New Zealand
with state-of-the-art technology,
increasing capacity by 40%,
cutting capital cost by a third,
meeting stringent environmental
regulations and all without
expanding the site footprint.
Client Rotorua District Council
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Capacity
The geysers, volcanoes, hot mud pools,
steam vents and 18 lakes of the Rotorua
District, on New Zealands North Island,
combine to make for a spectacular
tourist destination. The geography is
challenging when it comes to building
infrastructure, however. This was just
one facet of an exacting wastewater
treatment plant project.
New Zealand engineering firm AWT,
which joined Mott MacDonald in 2014,
has been working at the Rotorua
wastewater treatment works for the past
10 years, helping owner Rotorua District
Council squeeze as much capacity
as possible from the facility. The site
processes effluent for around 70,000
people and is critical to preserving the
areas natural beauty.
Yet, numerous communities around
Lake Rotorua arent connected to the
Capital cost
Says Kevan: The new technology
could deliver the required capacity
with a footprint about half of that of a
more conventional approach. Adapting
the old tank to fit the system avoided
the need to build new structures, at
a stroke avoiding the geotechnical
complications posed by the difficult
ground conditions.
Volcanic activity in the area means
that the air is laden with hydrogen
sulphide, which introduces corrosion
problems normally associated with
the wastewater itself. This required
particular consideration when specifying
construction materials and electrical
components; our solutions included
installing air purification systems in
buildings that house electrical switchgear, and coating field cables with tin to
avoid corrosion. The plant has a design
life of 25 years.
Adapting the old tank (far left) to fit the advanced membrane
bioreactor system (left) removed the need to build new
structures, at a stroke avoiding the geotechnical complications
posed by the difficult ground conditions, delivering increased
capacity and reducing capital cost by one third.
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BIM AIDS
COLLABORATION
BIM is standard for our
large technical projects
and it is also becoming
compulsory for government
submissions in Singapore.
However, setting up the
detailed models can be
Pop up hangar
HOW WERE ADDING VALUE
We modelled a prefabricated
stressed steel arch solution in BIM to assure integrity,
cut work at height and build an aircraft maintenance
hangar in Singapore in just eight hours.
Jet Aviation
Client Lu & Wo
A DIGITAL INVENTORY
Ground pits contain specialist equipment
needed for servicing aircraft. We created
virtual units in a BIM environment and used
them to simulate maintenance operations. In
doing so we found that, by reconfiguring their
placement, we could reduce the total number
of units from eight to two, saving cost.
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contamination of the
environment and sewer
system. Typically this
requires large underground
tanks to collect the foam,
which are expensive to
build. Instead, we designed
the aprons to act as
containment structures: if
discharged, the foam will be
physically unable to spread
past the apron boundaries,
SERVICE UNITS
CUT BY 75%
Maintenance hangars
include ground pits
structures that contain
specialised components
GLOBAL
CONNECTIVITY
Our use of BIM enabled
information to be easily
shared between the
projects multiple partners
across the globe. Our lead
team in Singapore liaised
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Photo: Jet Aviation
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ONE
30
1KM LONG MILL WAS LASER SCANNED TO CREATE INTERLINKED 3D BIM MODELS
200
THREE
LASER SCANNING TOOK THREE MONTHS BUT REPLACED HUNDREDS OF PAPER DRAWINGS
ZERO
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TECHNOLOGY-FIRST APPROACH
From the outset, we made BIM core
to our plans, says John. We used
laser scanning of the hot mill to create
interlinked 3D digital models that
covered different parts of the building
and process. Capturing the mill in such
a way took three months, but we could
then replace hundreds of drawings with
Tata Steel
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The San
Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
is the largest self-anchored
suspension bridge in the world,
designed to withstand the worst
earthquakes California can throw
at it. As programme oversight
manager, we helped shave costs
by US$400M.
HOW WERE ADDING VALUE
Redesigning components
to simplify fabrication, and
procuring globally, cut capital
cost too, contributing to overall
budget savings of US$400M.
Much of the steelwork came
SACRIFICIAL HINGES
With five full width traffic lanes
running in each direction, as well
as hard shoulders and provision
for bicycles and pedestrians,
this is the widest self-anchored
suspension bridge in the world
making it seismically safe
was a significant challenge. To
introduce energy absorption,
the bridge has been designed
with seismic joints between deck
segments that act like fuses,
Ted explains. Called hinge
pipe beams, they are cylindrical
steel components that run
longitudinally between deck
sections, thicker at the ends
than they are in the middle.
In an earthquake, these hinges
are sacrificial, distorting to allow
the deck sections to move. Just
like fuses, they can be swapped
out after they fail, returning the
bridge to operation within 72
hours, says Ted.
Ted Hall
Programe management director
ted.hall@hatchmott.com
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NO SHORTS HERE
HOW WERE ADDING VALUE
Lengthening
Bermudas berthing facilities held
the key to welcoming the newest
generation of cruise ships. We
helped deliver the fast-track
maritime upgrade.
Client Bermuda Ministry of Public Works
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We both
designed and engineered
this unusual J-shaped
scientific research facility,
which allowed us to
build in innovation and
environmental sensitivity
right from the start.
HOW WERE ADDING VALUE
Client Waters
Photos: Waters
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Photos: Waters
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Photos: Waters
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Photos: Waters
Photo: Waters
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COUNTRY-WIDE COLLABORATION
Photos: Waters
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Photo: Waters
Chris Oakes
Commercial Director
chris.oakes@mottmac.com
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AUSTRALIAS LARGEST
INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT
Weve completed concepts and route alignment for the giant WestConnect
scheme, a 33km, AU$11bn urban motorway system in the heart of Sydney.
The three stage project will join up and strengthen the existing road
network, and includes multiple grade separated interchanges, additional
lanes, a new viaduct and 10km of tunnels.
It will tackle severe congestion that is choking the city and prepare
the transport system for a projected population rise of 20% in the
next 20 years. Construction is expected to begin in 2015.
M2
M4
STAGE 1
M7
SYDNEY
STAGE 3
M5
STAGE 2
EASTERN
DISTRIBUTOR
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40
20
10,000
AU$20bn economic
benefits to the state
jobs created