Bruce Highway, Cooroy to Curra Section D
In short: Bruce Highway Cooroy to Curra Section D, the Gympie Bypass, is a major Department of Transport and Main Roads project built by the Bielby-BMD joint venture. East Coast Traffic Control provided traffic management from the end of 2020 through to the bypass opening in October 2024, with large teams across multiple locations and constantly changing surroundings, hazards and risks to evaluate and control.
- Client
- Bielby-BMD joint venture
- Road authority
- Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR)
- Location
- Bruce Highway between Cooroy and Curra (Gympie Bypass), QLD
- Year
- 2020 to 2024
- Duration
- From the end of 2020 to the opening in October 2024
What the job involved
Section D is the final section of the Cooroy to Curra upgrade and bypasses Gympie to the east. The bypass includes 42 bridges at 23 locations, and more than 6 million cubic metres of earth was moved from cuts to fill areas. That earthwork raises the new highway to a level designed to withstand a one-in-100-year flood event.
ECTC was on the project from the end of 2020, working for the Bielby-BMD joint venture, which holds the contract for this section from the Department of Transport and Main Roads. Crews come from our Sunshine Coast depot, which covers Gympie.
The challenge
A highway build of this size is not one work zone. It is many, spread over kilometres, each with its own tie-in to the live Bruce Highway and local roads. The surroundings change as embankments rise, bridges go in and haul routes move, so the hazards on Monday are not the hazards on Friday.
That calls for large traffic teams who can hold multiple locations at once and re-evaluate the setup as the risks change, not a crew that sets up once and waits.
What ECTC did
We supplied large teams across the multiple locations on Section D, with the people and planning capacity to evaluate and control the evolving risks and hazards as the project changed around them. Being local to the Sunshine Coast and Gympie meant the project could scale crews up and down without lead time.
The new highway opened to traffic on 16 October 2024.
More jobs
Cairns Western Arterial Road duplication, Redlynch Connector Road to Captain Cook HighwayAlbem Constructions / Cairns Western Arterial Road, Redlynch Connector Road to Captain Cook Highway, Cairns QLDRead the job
Capricorn Highway and Bruce Highway reseal programCapricorn Highway and Bruce Highway between Rockhampton and EmeraldRead the jobNeed crews on site?
Send the job and your local Area Manager takes it from there, day or night.