pacific highway upgrades NSW

green infrastructure - road

• Woolgoolga to Ballina - Glenugie to Maclean (Section A) AILA NSW Landscape Architecture Award for Infrastructure 2019

Darren led the landscape team for the Glenugie to Maclean section of the unprecedented design, delivery and coordination of 129 kilometres of highway. The road design draws cues from the surrounding landscape and connects people to the landscape beyond.

• Nambucca heads to Urunga

Darren led the HBO+EMTB landscape team for this 21.6 kilometre upgrade traversing part floodplain, where agricultural pursuits and rural residential development have resulted in widespread clearing, and hills and spurs which are mostly forested. The project comprised a total of thirty seven vehicular bridges at twenty five locations and includes the crossing of the Kalang River on a new 190 metre long bridge near South Arm Road. Hoop Pine was selected as the signature tree to both announce the gateway to Nambucca Heads and to give the Rest Area a different character to the rest of the alignment. Key work elements included: input into the engineering of the alignment of the highway; the design and documentation of structures, including bridges, underpasses, glider crossings; and the landscape design including Rest Areas.

• Oxley Highway to Kempsey

The Oxley Highway to Kempsey upgrade comprised two sections - The 23 km Oxley Highway to Kundabung project in the south, and the 14 km Kundabung to Kempsey project in the north. Darren was the lead landscape architect throughout both projects which included bridges over the Hastings and Wilson rivers and rest areas at Barrys Creek

• Devil’s Pulpit

Darren completed the design and documentation for the upgrade to a four-lane divided highway of this 6.4km section of the Pacific Highway north of Grafton. The Upgrade is set largely within Devil’s Pulpit and Tabbimoble State forests and the Bundjalung National Park, transitioning into cleared rural lands at the northern most portion of the study area and provides panoramic views to the Great Dividing Range and the forests, farmlands and coastline of the Pacific Ocean. Consideration was paid to ecologically responsible revegetation strategies with the use of appropriate species recognising the roads passage through the surrounding National Park and State Forest areas. Darren was responsible for Environmental Assessment documentation (Visual Assessment), landscape design direction, concept design and detailed design and documentation.

• Macleay River and Floodplain Bridge

A 3.2 kilometre long reinforced concrete structure which traverses the Macleay River and associated floodplain in northern New South Wales. It comprises precast girders supported on tapered headstocks and twin piers and will afford motorists extensive views of the surrounding countryside. It is part of the proposed Kempsey Bypass, which is in turn the first stage of the Kempsey to Eungai Pacific Highway Upgrade.

• Bonville

As part of a multidisciplinary team of designers and contractors, HBO+EMTB prepared the urban design component of the Abigroup tender for the design, construction and maintenance tender for this ten kilometre section of the Pacific Highway. On award of the tender, HBO+EMTB, SMEC Engineering and the Abigroup worked together to develop the tender design to enable documentation and construction. Maintaining the urban and landscape design intent throughout this process was a major objective. Key work elements included: input into the engineering of the alignment of the highway; the design and documentation of structures, including bridges, underpasses, fauna overpasses and noise walls; and the landscape design including planting schedules.