North East Link Early Works

The North East Link (NEL) is part of the Victorian Government’s program of city-shaping infrastructure. NEL will connect the M80 ring road with an upgraded Eastern Freeway, filling in the missing link in Melbourne’s freeway network—taking 15,000 trucks a day off local roads and slashing travel times by up to 35 minutes.

We were commissioned to deliver the early works package as lead designers, utility coordinators, and digital engineer leads. The work consisted of critical enabling works such as relocating over 100 utilities, preparing future worksites, and building infrastructure to support the delivery of the main works packages.

The size and complexity of the project presented a major challenge with long linear infrastructure having to be relocated. We managed risks through industry-leading services in utility detection and excavation in high-risk environments, survey and modelling, and digital engineering enablement. We minimized disruption though careful conflict resolution and the coordination of asset providers and stakeholders across many jurisdictions.

Alongside the relocation work, we provided ongoing advice to see that all environment project requirements were met including soil management programs. These programs lead to soil being re-used elsewhere on the project, saving landfill and lowering disposal fees significantly for our client.

The NEL early works services were successfully completed, setting the stage for major construction works on the road infrastructure.