Inland Rail PPP Tunnels

Case study

Inland Rail PPP TUNNELS

Estimated project value

$15 billion

Our involvement

2018 – 2022

Our role

Tunnel Technical Advisor
Design Management
Constructability
Cost and Schedule Review

Project Description

Inland Rail is a $15 billion, 1,727-kilometre (1,073 miles) ARTC railway line connecting the ports of Melbourne and Brisbane along a new route west of the Great Dividing Range mountains, allowing for the use of double-stacked freight trains.

Construction of the line is divided into 13 projects, with 733 kilometres of new track to be built and 994 kilometres of existing track to be upgraded.

Inland Rail means freight can be delivered faster and more reliably to the growing population, and beyond to global markets.

The scope of the program includes 13 discrete projects that will be built across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Inland Rail will upgrade 1,100 kilometres of existing rail line and build 600 kilometres of new track to connect missing links between Melbourne and Brisbane.

The Australian government is investing up to 14.5 billion equity for a RTC to build inland rail, in partnership with the private sector

Our Involvement

ProSquared’s role included overseeing and reviewing the tunnelling design component of the three PPP projects. We reviewed and provided independent advice on the tunnelling component of the PPP bids and managed the responses to the PPP bidders’ clarifications, including our recommendations to the PPP Bid Evaluation.

We managed emerging engineering issues and provided high level technical advice to the PPP team and evaluated and advised on solutions, including cost, schedule and constructability impacts.

We worked closely with the Transaction and Commercial Management Team for the PPP, which was considered the most technical and complex of the 13 sections (Gowrie to Kagaru). From technical specification and requirements drafting through the Expression of Interest and the Request for Proposal stages, we provided technical and design inputs to achieve the optimum and cost effective solutions.

The successful tenderer was Regionerate Rail consortium.