RPQ works

What the work involved

RPQ delivers sealing packages on the state road network in north west Queensland. Over a period of months ECTC crews covered the sections listed below, most of them hundreds of kilometres from the nearest depot:

• Karumba Point to Walkers Creek, Normanton
• Burke and Wills Four Ways Roadhouse
• Gregory to Camooweal
• Camooweal to Mount Isa
• Mount Isa to Cloncurry
• Cloncurry to Duchess Road

The challenge

This is remote work. The sealing crew moves along the section each day, the traffic setup moves with it, and the nearest town might be two hours away. Crews need to be self-sufficient for accommodation, fuel, water and equipment, and the setups need to handle road trains and mine traffic on roads with long sight lines and high speeds.

Mobilising from Townsville to the Gulf and the North West also means planning the travel and fatigue management as carefully as the traffic plan.

What ECTC did

We covered the larger territories by sending crews who travelled and stayed with each sealing package, moving the setup daily as the works progressed. The previous and ongoing jobs gave RPQ a strong reference point, and ECTC went into 2020 looking at more work with them on the same basis.

For clients tendering remote sealing or reseal packages, this is the model: crews that go where the work is and stay until it is done.