The project involved the realignment of a poor section of the existing New England Highway. The project was 1.9Km long and was located approx. 17 km to the north of Armidale. The existing highway was in a rural environment with sharp curves and crests as well as a sub-standard intersection with the Sunnyside Road.

•     The area was known to hold significant aboriginal heritage value and as such all of the works were operating under an Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit (AHIP). The project team worked closely with the local Aboriginal community to protect Aboriginal heritage in the local area.

•     The Earthworks Management Plan involved materials management to ensure that the best earthworks materials were reserved for use as both earthworks upper zone and select zone material. This meant the careful management of what materials were used where in order to avoid double handling

•     Because of the classification of the New England Highway It was a RTA G10 specification requirement that 2 minutes shall be the maximum delay caused by Traffic control associated with the works. This requirement was played out in the staging for the tie -in construction.

•     Sunnyside Realignment contract had RTA G1 specification Ride quality criteria that offered incentives and applied deductions according to the measured roughness count for each 100m section of the roadway. Deductions started at 15% of the pay item at more than 39 counts per km (bumps). This was a challenge when trimming the base course and was especially true at the locations of the tie-ins’ that were constructed under traffic.