Origin Alliance – RIB CostX Software Goes Motorway

The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads established the Origin Alliance project to deliver the Ipswich Motorway Upgrade between Dinmore and Goodna. This is a dynamic team of highly experienced Engineering personnel, committed to delivering an outstanding result on what is Queensland’s largest Road Alliance Project ever undertaken. 

Ipswich Motorway Upgrade

Client: The Department of Transport and Main Roads Queensland (DMR) 
Product used: CostX – Network 
Project: Ipswich Motorway Upgrade: Dinmore to Goodna 
Value: A$1.95 billion 
Timeframe: May 2008 – Dec 2012 

Client’s Requirements

The Motorway forms part of the Auslink National Network, providing a vital link between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin. As such, it forms the major freight corridor between the Port of Brisbane and Brisbane’s Southern industrial hub and interstate destinations. 
 
The project was funded by the Federal Government and it is being delivered by the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads. An entity called Origin Alliance was formed to deliver the project. Origin Alliance comprises Main Roads, Abigroup, Fulton Hogan, Seymour Whyte Constructions, SMEC Australia and Parsons Brinckerhoff. 
 
The completed project will consist of a ‘new’ dual 6/8 lane motorway, with grade separated interchanges, over the route of an existing 2 lane dual carriageway, part of which runs over abandoned coal mines and is adjacent to busy railway lines, residential suburbs, shopping centres and the Brisbane River. 

Origin Alliance Contributions

The all-inclusive project controls team was established to develop a consistent suite of systems to support the successful outcome of the project. One of the major systems used on the project was the CostX estimating software. 
 
The Project Controls Team produced all the project remeasured quantities from the final design packages via the use of CostX. It was the first time that this ground-breaking on-screen measurement and estimating software was used on a major Infrastructure Project in Australia. 
 
Much of this project’s road design is prepared using 12D Road Design and Survey, which does not produce traditional drawings to which CostX is usually applied to produce measurement quantities. It was our client’s (Department of Transport and Main Roads) goal to produce all future road tender documents in an electronic format and that the development of CostX to measure 12D road design output would support this. 
 
Considerable software development was undertaken by Exactal (in close consultation with 12D) to read and measure from 12D files in CostX, and further development work is continuing to compute earthworks quantities direct from 12D design outputs. 

Making the Difference

CostX’s unique approach provides increased accuracy, efficiency & productivity in the take-off process (quicker than scale ruler). By automatically identifying all updated drawing revisions it allows fast revisions of drawings to be easily handled and eliminates traditional scope creep in construction projects.