Full Freeway Closures for Maintenance

We began trialling full freeway closures for the completion of routine maintenance in late 2017.

In March 2018, in collaboration with DM Roads, we successfully completed a full closure of the Mitchell Freeway, over five nights, for routine maintenance works.

More than 280 people from nine organisations came together, working under one closure and one set of traffic management, coordinated by DM Roads’ Electrical Services team.

The full closure enabled all required maintenance activities on a section of freeway to be completed. This included drainage inspections and verification; vegetation maintenance; replacement of electric light units, lamps and gear trays; barrier repair works; line marking; and litter collection and roadside sweeping.

At the same time, the Public Transport Authority were able to take advantage of the closure to complete essential barrier and vegetation works along the rail corridor.

Completing routine maintenance works during a full closure had significant safety benefits for workers, who otherwise face numerous hazards and near misses when members of the public enter or drive unsafely near worksites. Full closures almost completely remove this risk and ensure workers can concentrate on the task at hand, thereby also improving productivity.

Full closures also significantly reduce the impact on the travelling public. If completed under standard traffic management, these works would have required the freeway to be closed for 38 nights, as opposed to just 5.

In addition, the financial benefit is notable, resulting in savings of almost $200,000, funds that have been reinvested into the maintenance budget to ensure our roads remain safe, efficient and reliable.

The success of these works has led to plans for full freeway closures to be used as our standard approach for freeway maintenance.