Highway to Hell – Collaboration is the Key

In March, a huge effort behind the scenes helped make the spectacular free public event, Highway to Hell, a success. More than 150,000 people turned out to pay tribute to legendary Australian rock band, AC/DC, which saw Canning Highway temporarily closed between Kwinana Freeway and Queen Victoria Street Fremantle.

Our teams worked relentlessly with other stakeholders to ensure the community enjoyed their experience.

We played a significant role in the planning and delivery of transport management for this event to reduce the impacts to the road network and maximise the efficiency and safety of transport measures. This included:

• detailed assessment of network impacts along Canning Highway and the surrounding precinct
• safe deployment and efficient implementation of traffic management by the four contracted traffic management providers
• development of detailed traffic management and Hostile Vehicle Mitigation plans
• Media and Communications, Command and Control, Incident Management and Contingency, Heavy Vehicle Access, SCATs and Route Management.

On the day of the event, we came together with stakeholders including Public Transport Authority, WA Police, Perth Festival, St John, Department of Fire and Emergency Services and local government at the Road Network Operations Centre (RNOC). Using state of the art technology, the team monitored and manually controlled over 70 signalised sections to ensure the event’s success with minimal impacts to the network outside of the event zone.

The RNOC has placed itself at the leading edge of live network analysis and management of major events on roads while acknowledging that extensive event planning and stakeholder engagement, relying on strong internal and external relationships, is key to a successful event.

The event proved a success for many businesses along the highway also boosting the hospitality industry, some of which reported extended trading hours, rostered on extra staff and boasted record-breaking sales.