More than 60 emerging professionals were given behind-the-scenes access to Sydney’s Warringah Freeway Upgrade (WFU), providing the rare opportunity to explore the delivery challenges and innovation behind Australia’s most intricate brownfield road project.
Hosted in partnership with Roads Australia, the site tour offered participants from the RA Emerging Leaders Program a firsthand look at the scale, complexity, and innovative solutions required to complete the four-kilometre upgrade, delivered in a joint venture with DT Infrastructure. The upgrade includes 23 lanes at its widest, 26 entry and exit ramps, seven tunnel entries and exits, while maintaining access for more than 250,000 daily motorists.
Highlights:
- A project briefing and Q&A by Project Director Steven Clark and Design Director Philip McDonald
- A site tour coordinated by Construction Director Mac Harvey and Project Managers Travis Hincks and Jennan Becirevic.
- A keynote on safety by design with Benita Husband, CPB Contractors General Manager Engineering.
- A Roads Australia policy workshop exploring how young leaders across design, environment, construction, and engineering can contribute to safer transport infrastructure.
The Warringah Freeway Upgrade project, being delivered on behalf of Transport for NSW in a joint venture between CPB Contractors and DT Infrastructure, will reduce congestion, improve capacity, and create new public transport links on one of Sydney’s most important corridors. Along with the connecting Western Harbour Tunnel, the projects will transform travel across Sydney Harbour.
Participants explored interactive maps and 3D models, uncovering the hidden infrastructure beneath the road, and learned about the challenges of delivering a high-profile project with 43,000 residents living along the alignment, and in a live traffic freeway environment.
Since work began in 2021, this intricate road project has required more than 200 traffic management plans to be delivered, with more than 25 plans in delivery at any one time. Each plan is developed in partnership with Transport for NSW to govern how traffic movements change. When works are undertaken on roads as critical to Sydney's traffic flow as WFU, the plans must be meticulous in detail and regularly include innovative solutions to protect worker safety and provide access in live environments while minimising road impacts for motorists.
In addition to traffic management plans, the team's extensive stakeholder and interface management expertise has enabled 130 major 56-hour partial road shutdowns to be delivered successfully, requiring an average of 850 road occupancy licenses monthly to enable workers to mobilise and demobilise across live lanes.
“The Warringah Freeway is one of Sydney’s busiest road networks, providing vital connection for communities from north to south and east to west, interfacing with major road connections including the Lane Cove Tunnel, the Sydney Harbour Tunnel and WestConnex Tunnels as well as other key projects including the Western Harbour Tunnel,” Steven Clark said.
“Our project works are impacting and interacting with an extraordinary number of stakeholders so rapid decision making is required to minimise community disruption and address any changing priorities as we deliver the project. Collaboration and coordination are key and the digital systems and planning tools that we use are vital to supporting our people across every element of the project.”
Benita Husband emphasised the importance of designing safety into every stage of a project: “When designing sustainable infrastructure, we must consider how it’s built, used, and eventually decommissioned”.
She also highlighted how digital platforms are transforming not only project delivery, but also the way infrastructure is maintained by road operators long after construction is complete: “The key is ensuring data is structured well early and accessible by key stakeholders as a single source of truth that supports every phase of the asset lifecycle.”
Designed specifically for early career transport infrastructure professionals, the Roads Australia Emerging Leaders program supports the next generation of talent by providing access to industry leaders, technical exchanges and site tours, as well as opportunities to grow professional networks.
Verity Turner, Chair of the RA Future Leaders Committee, said it offered a powerful platform for fresh thinking, best practice, and reflected RA’s commitment to elevate the voices of young professionals in the transport infrastructure sector.
“The conversations, connections and energy in the room were inspiring,” Verity Turner said. The site tour added a tangible dimension to the experience, sparking discussion about digital innovation, road safety, and the future of our industry. It’s clear the next generation of leaders is ready to shape what comes next.”
Jess Wood, Civil Structural Engineer at Arcadis, said the site tour helped contextualise the project’s constraints and achievements. “As a young professional, the chance to workshop with peers from leading firms and see a major project such as WFU in action has deepened my understanding of industry challenges and exciting projects. I could not stop asking questions.”
Benita said, “Investing in the development of skills and training for not only our own people but across all industry is at the heart of what we do at CPB Contractors, and Roads Australia’s Emerging Leaders program is one we are extremely proud to support.”
“We thank Transport for NSW for allowing us the opportunity to take this group of people from all over the country on site to one of the most challenging but equally rewarding roads projects our nation has ever delivered. Projects like this provide the greatest environment for innovation and learning and so we are pleased we could share some of those insights with our industry’s future leaders.”