The Princes Highway and Waratah Street Intersection project and Stage Two of the King Georges Road upgrade aim to ease congestion and reduce significant journey time delays.

As part of the MRB Technical Services joint venture with Mott MacDonald and RPS, BG&E contributed to the concept and detailed design for these critical upgrades, supporting improved traffic flow and connectivity.

The Princes Highway and Waratah Street Intersection upgrade includes the following elements

• Reconfiguration and widening of the Waratah Street approach to Princes Highway to provide dual signalised right turn and left turn lanes.
• Widening of the Princes Highway western kerb (northbound) to provide a dedicated left turn lane from Princes Highway to Waratah Street (reduced length to avoid impacts to council heritage trees).
• Pedestrian crossing amendments, including a signalised pedestrian crossing for Waratah Street.
• Extension of the Waratah Street median to restrict right turn movements into and out of the service road, and amendments to driveways through the intersection.

The KGR2A improvement includes the following elements

• Widening of KGR from two to three lanes in each direction from Connells Point Road to the William Street and Culwulla Street intersection.
• Introducing a median along KGR and relocating footpaths and utilities to suit the new layout.
• Extending the southbound right turn bay on KGR at the Connells Point Road intersection, including removing the left slip lane, zebra crossing and pedestrian island on the northeast corner for improved safety. maintaining signalised pedestrian crossing.
• Optimising drainage design to minimise physical work and adjustments to the existing network.

Both projects require the work to be undertaken within constrained environments while accommodating a wide range of utilities. Particularly, the project team had to contend with inadequate drainage in the existing condition, with the project potentially increasing the issues downstream in the Council owned system.

The project team worked collaboratively with the TfNSW project team to understand and deal with the complex issues around utilities, including a water main and 132kV for Princes Highway and on KGR2A where existing assets are within an already congested footway which is being further reduced due to the road widening.

MRB delivered the detailed design, federated model, and project plans on time, meeting TfNSW’s quality expectations and promptly addressing any issues. These items were completed in parallel with progressing various optioneering items and investigation plans.

The project team has delivered the detailed design and IFT documentation to TfNSW, who as of mid-2024 are in the process of tendering for the construction of the works. MRB will continue to have input through the construction phase.