In 2011, the Eastern Busway Alliance – comprising Leighton Contractors, AECOM, Sinclair Knight Merz and the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads – undertook the design and construction of a 1.05 km busway between an existing roadway at Buranda and the main avenue in Coorparoo.

From project commencement, the Alliance was committed to delivering an environmentally sustainable busway that would invigorate the area and meet the needs of the local community.

The busway was one of two projects assessed in the first round of trials for the Australian Green Infrastructure Council’s (AGIC) infrastructure sustainability rating scheme.

Unified sustainability goals

During September 2011, the Alliance worked in collaboration with AGIC to trial the assessment tool on an in-progress project.

AGIC Technical Director Rick Walters says that the lessons learned during assessment of the Eastern Busway project were influential in revising the rating scheme for Round 2 of trials.

“The Eastern Busway scored particularly well in the areas of policies and management systems, innovations, materials, and knowledge sharing,” Mr Walters says.

“Beyond highlighting key innovations already being implemented by the industry, Alliance Manager Gillian White of Leighton and her team were extremely helpful in discussing the tool, its benchmarks and applicability, and evidence requirements.”

Project innovation

Ms White tells Sustainability and Infrastructure that the overall successes of the Eastern Busway project’s sustainability outcomes were a result of setting the project foundations correctly.

“In my experience with other ‘green’ initiatives, it was clear that project teams need to make sustainability programs easy for everyone to follow,” Ms White says.

“Sustainability needs to be incorporated into the overall systems and processes from the very beginning, and needs to be fully integrated into the tools already used by the crews rather than as an independent requirement.

“If it’s part of what the team does every day and it’s easy to follow, then sustainability outcomes have the potential to be achieved.”

Ms White says that from the early planning phase of the project, team members challenged how the project was designed – and how it would ultimately be built – by identifying innovations and driving significant design scope changes. These included:

  • Flattening the grade of the busway to improve the efficiency of bus travel along the alignment
  • Simplifying structures to save money, materials and energy, while improving visual amenity
  • Installing solar power panels at busway stations to supply electricity to the busway and to the grid
  • Using renewable or less energy-intensive materials where possible
  • Collecting rainwater at busway stations for cleaning and maintenance activities.

The importance of preparation

A detailed study undertaken by the Alliance identified the potential impacts of climate change on the project in order to incorporate climate change adaption. Increased rainfall predictions subsequent to climate change were factored in the need to redesign a busway station at Langlands Park to an ‘at grade’ level, and the operational ability to manage flood levels.

Suppliers and contractors were assessed against their ability to provide goods or services that would minimise the impacts of the project on the community and the environment, and truly sustainable goods and services were included in the work package.

Recycling targets were included in the demolition works contract for the clearing of the busway alignment, resulting in approximately 50 per cent of buildings being removed for resale and relocation. From those demolished buildings, 94 per cent of materials were recycled.

Ms White says that the project team was encouraged to constantly look for ways to improve waste and water management and increase construction efficiency, such as through recycling waste materials, treating and reusing water, trialling solar power and LED lighting, and reusing excavated material as fill.

Improving ecology

The Alliance installed two 50,000 litre rainwater tanks, internally plumbed for office use, and established sediment ponds, storage tanks and clarification systems on-site for water re-use or release (as necessary) for dust suppression and cleaning machinery.

Other elements of the Eastern Busway project’s environmental sustainability initiatives included:

  • Building sustainability into the project contract through cost-incentivised key performance indicators and key results areas
  • Recycling and re-using components of a disused pedestrian bridge rather than constructing a new one
  • Designing drought-tolerant landscaping for graffiti prevention.

Mr Walters says “Together, the Eastern Busway Alliance and AGIC identified that there are opportunities for future projects to improve ecology outcomes – even on brownfield projects.”

By visibly integrating sustainability into the ‘culture’ of the project, the Alliance completed the design and construction of the busway six months ahead of schedule and within budget.