Recycling Driving Victoria’s Road Upgrades

Recycling has been and will continue to be the driving force behind Victoria’s record road investment projects. The Mordialloc Freeway upgrade project has constructed and installed noise walls made from 75 per cent recycled plastic in a world-first.

The revolutionary panels are made using 570 tonnes of plastic waste – around the same amount collected kerbside from 25,000 Victorian households in a year. Roughly half of the plastic waste is plastic from household waste such as milk and soft drink bottles, and the remaining is through the recycling of soft plastic items such as bread bags, food wrappers and bubble wrap. Thanks to the innovation of recycling waste, 570 tonnes of plastic have been saved from landfills. 

Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan said: “We are delivering an unprecedented amount of road projects and upgrades to keep Victorians moving, and creating thousands of jobs to keep the economy moving.”

“Whether it’s fixing the roundabout at the end of your street or the freeway you drive to work – we’re building better roads that get you home safer and more reliably.”

The Andrews Labor Government gives the green light to the upgrades of Craigieburn Road in Craigieburn, Golf Links Road in Langwarrin South and Pound Road West in Dandenong South, which are being delivered in partnership with the Commonwealth Government and built by Major Road Projects Victoria.

Major construction will get underway in the second half of 2021 on these congestion-busting suburban upgrades, with detailed design work underway by Fulton Hogan, Seymour Whyte Constructions and MACA Civil.

In further good news for motorists, progress on a series of upgrades already underway at Childs Road, Hallam North Road, Fitzsimons Lane and Lathams Road will now see those projects finished by 2023, two years ahead of schedule.

The third stage of the Princes Highway East Upgrade will be delivered concurrently through a trio of partners, including Laing O’Rourke, Whelans Group Investments and BildGroup providing more regional job opportunities.

This project pipeline will mean more than 4,500 direct Victorian jobs and will support a further 11,000 jobs.

These projects are part of the Labor Government’s record push to use recycled materials in new transport projects, with more than 250,000 tonnes of crushed concrete and 30,000 tonnes of reclaimed asphalt to be incorporated.

Victorians can expect to see more waste than ever being integrated into transport projects as part of Big Build’s new Recycled First policy. The policy requires bidders to optimise their use of recycling.

This will see the use of recycled plastic fibre to reinforce non-structural concrete, recycled plastic drainage pipes, and tons of reclaimed asphalt, plastic, glass, crushed concrete and brick going into a road pavement.

More than 3,000 tonnes of recycled glass will be used in drainage works on Fitzsimons Lane and almost two and a half kilometres of recycled plastic drainage pipes.

Recycled plastic pipes will also feature on Hallam Road North, along with 2,000 tonnes of recycled glass sand in drainage works. The upgrade of Childs Road will feature almost two tonnes of plastic in its concrete paving works.

Read the full media release here. 

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