Arain et al. (2010) stated that a feasibility study is the assessment of the practicality of a proposed plan or a project. Griffin et al. (2015) furthermore depicted that this study also illustrates the success factor of a project and how the project is beneficial for the community. The project that is considered in this assessment is Sydney Harbour Tunnel that was completed and opened to traffic in August 1992. This tunnel is a twin-tube road tunnel in Sydney and the tunnel joins Warringah Freeway to Cahill Expressway from north Sydney to the domain tunnel (Black, 2014).
This business report provides a detailed overview of the background of the project, its anticipated outcomes and benefits and the strategic goals for implementing the project. Moreover, some effective project drivers will also be discussed in details along with the project assumptions, issues, constraints and validity of the project. The associated risk with the project is also discussed that is associated with the project environment and some alternative solution will also be illustrated. Lastly, the time and the cost limitation of the project will also be presented and recommendations for future development will also be covered in this business report.
The Sydney Harbour Tunnel project was initiated through a joint partnership between Kumagai Gumi and Transfield and is started from the year 1987 (Transfield.com.au, 2017). The project was owned and operated by Sydney Harbour Tunnel Company (Rms.nsw.gov.au, 2017). This project was considered as the first Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) project and total of $750 million was financed for this tunnel project (Transfield.com.au, 2017).
Earlier the plan for building an alternative cross-harbor route that was identified by Sydney Orbital plan instead of Sydney Harbour Tunnel. The reason is that project was beyond the scope of the Roads and Maritime budget (Rms.nsw.gov.au, 2017). The project was completed and opened for public in the ear 1992 and it is presently capable of carrying around 90,000 vehicles per day (Brooker & Uddin, 2011). One of the major significance of this project is that it is the first underwater traffic tunnel linking both sides of the city and the “immersed tube technology” was implemented for creating concrete caissons so that the tunnel can float into its position and lowered onto the sea level (Transfield.com.au, 2017).
The major idea for the formulation of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel is to reduce the congestion on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The benefits of this tunnel program were witnessed from two aspects- for road users and for public transport users. The reduced traffic congestion allows the road users to travel faster without any delay in their journey. Tiong (1990) furthermore discussed that travelers also mover relatively faster between Sydney’s north and the airport and it seamlessly links traffic flowing from the north of the harbour to airport routes (Rms.nsw.gov.au, 2017). Moreover, the tunnel also links M5 East and M5 South-Western motorways that improved the access between harbour crossings and Sydney’s south-western suburbs (Rms.nsw.gov.au, 2017). The benefit that the public transport users get is that bus services for the north of the harbor has been improvised as a separate bus lane on the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built (Rms.nsw.gov.au, 2017).
The anticipation of the project is to attain high use of safe transportation in the bridge and tunnel. During the implementation of the tunnel project the formulation of the bus lane was planned for to attain improvement in city-bound bus services so that more people can travel with efficiency. At that time the thought of less congestion on roads, better local air quality and fewer carbon emissions were also consider.
The strategic goal of the project is to built a tunnel below the Sydney Harbour Bridge is to provide convenience to the local people and reduce the traffic on the bridge. Moreover, new technology was planned to use in the formulation of this bridge. This can be witnessed through the fact that the tunnel was fully operated with both e-TAG and e-pass video tolling arrangements in use (Haughton & McManus, 2012). This technology helps in reducing the traffic heading towards the electronic gantries. Another key feature of the project is the removal of the toll booth along for the redundant services and infrastructure. Tiong & Alum (1997) also highlight that, the intersection of York and Grosvenor streets was also the strategic goal of the project.
Project drivers are the aspect through which a project runs attained its objectives and serve the desired task for which the project is formulated (Phibbs, 2008). It is mentioned that in order to make the tunnel float on its position above the sea level, immersed tube technology was utilized for creating concrete caissons (Burns et al., 2013). Moreover, in order to handle the traffic, the Trantek MST had implemented the technology of reliable rebroadcast system. In recent times, the project engineers intend to implement intelligent transport system and thus they have chosen RFI technology. Pells (2002) stated that the M/FM radio rebroadcast system incorporated for the tunnel is vital as it allow the tunnel supervisors to handle the situation inside the tunnel and severe accidents can be overcome. Moreover, McLoughlin (2000) depicted that the RFI system offers a flexible rebroadcast system that includes effective system design of the tunnel, Factory acceptance testing (FAT), RF surveys, Site acceptance testing (SAT) and coverage testing.
Another project driver was security maintenance of the tunnel. Proper ventilation,, emergency exits in case of fire and enough exhausts are also presents in the tunnel. This technology advancement considered as a crucial project. The length of the tunnel was also planned to made up of three sections- twin 900-metre on the north shore, twin 400-metre on the south shore and a 960-metre immersed tube configuration (Quiggin, 2002).
Strong engineering can also be considered as an important project drivers and it can be witnessed through eight precast concrete units (Ashton et al., 2001). During the construction, prior to the arrival of the immersed tube (IMT) structure, a trench was dredged so that the IMT can be lowered into the trench supported by the system of control towers and pontoons.
The assumption of the project is to create convenience to the local people so that they can travel without any problem. However, Gee et al. (2002) argued that there are some adversity that rises due to the formulation of the projects. One such project is air pollution that exhausted from the top of the northern pylon of the Sydney Bridge. The issue was that continuous amount of fresh air has to be supplied inside the tunnel and thus the tunnel was designed so that it can intake fresh air from air intake structure located in Bradfield Park. However, sometimes traffic has to be controlled for reducing the adverse impact of the air quality. Yamaguchi et al. (2001) also highlighted that the Department of Environment and Planning, Australia also stated that the regional air quality is going to be worse in presence of tunnel compared to the absence of the same tunnel. Moreover, another issue was the alienation of Parkland that the formulation of the bridge results in damage of visibility of the park. Deforestation will hamper the beauty of the park. Additionally, there was marine impact also that caused due to dredging and blasting on the Harbour bottom. The EIS also argued that the construction of the tunnel will results in loss of marine diversity and some sediments from construction also results in dispersal of toxic waste. Newman (2014) also stated that the level of the heavy metals in the marine will also rise that may affect the marine animals and their growth.
The constraints that is taken by the authority is the using eco-friendly materials and built the tunnel with long-lasting technology so that the damage should be one time loss and no extra effort should have to put in overcoming the adversity. In addition to that, a committee was set up so that the progress of the tunnel can be evaluated efficiently.
Risk of accidents and fire are the major risk that is associated in the project environment. (Bjelland & Aven, 2013) explains that project risk related to flow of financial resources and timing is also considered as a broader risk of a project. In recent times, there was a tunnel collision on the Sydney Harbour Tunnel that results in delay. The reason was the accident between a car and a truck and due to police operation on Cumberland Hwy, the traffic in the tunnel stays for longer time (Dailytelegraph.com.au, 2017). Moreover, fire accidents also occurred in the tunnel and this incidence can be witnessed through the fire occurred from a truck accident. The truck was diverted while crossing a car and turned over that result in huge fire. The adversity results in heavy traffic along the Gore Hill Freeway and it was queued over 3 kilometers (News.com.au, 2017). In previous tie, there was not arrangement for the identification of the huge accident in the initial stage. However, in recent time, the entire tunnel is equipped with GPS services so that the tunnel management accesses the activity of the tunnel effectively. Moreover, in the year 2014, traffic also comes to a standstill in Sydney Harbour Tunnel after a car catches on fire (Dailymail.co.uk, 2017).
The time taken for the completing the project was 5 years (1988- 1992) and the total cost that was invested in completing the project was estimated to be $401 million per year in the year 1986 (Rms.nsw.gov.au, 2017). It was also estimated that $10.6 million amount will also be invested per year for the maintenance and operation of the tunnel (Rms.nsw.gov.au, 2017). However, the financial resources come to shortage and the entire project was completed in $738 million according to the data of Roads and Traffic Authority (Rms.nsw.gov.au, 2017). Yusuf et al. (2014) argued that the extra cost that was incorporate while building the tunnel has to be paid by the users, who use the tunnel in form of toll taxes. Moreover, the tunnel was supposed to be financed privately by Transfield-Kumagai but some experts argued that the actual funding was raised from road users from the Bridge and Tunnel toll (Khan, 2013). This incident resulted in greater disappointment among the local people and other users of the tunnel.
Conclusion
This assessment highlights the feasibility study of an Australian project. The project that is taken into consideration is the Sydney Harbour Tunnel that was completed in August 1992. The planning of the tunnel was initiated in 1986 and the work for the project has been started in the year 1988. It is found from the assessment that the formulation of the tunnel was made for the convenience of the road users and to reduce the congestion in the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The two issues and risk that are highlighted in the assessment are the project risk and the security risk. In addition to that, the tunnel also impacts the environment in both ways- deforestation of trees in a park and loss of marine animals due to under water due to dredging and blasting on the Harbour bottom. It is also found that in traditional days, the tunnel was not equipped with modern technology but in recent times, technologies like RFI system factory acceptance testing (FAT), RF surveys, Site acceptance testing (SAT) and coverage testing was taken into consideration. Moreover, GRS system in also incorporated in the tunnel so that the activities inside the tunnel can be assessed and any adversity can be resolved in the initial stage. However, the tunnel was built based on the technology of immersed tube technology that makes the tunnel floating on its position in its position. Appropriate emergency exit and ventilation arrangement was also planned.
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