NorthConnex

Sustainable design

NorthConnex was awarded a Leading Infrastructure Sustainability Design Rating, the highest rating available in this independent rating scheme and the highest score for any road project in Australia to date. NorthConnex’s high sustainability rating reflects our efforts to use less and think long-term, including:

• Using improved construction procedures leading to a 26 per cent reduction in emissions
• Reducing water use throughout the life of the project – we are on track to achieve a 42 per cent (about 1,700 ML) reduction
• Reducing the lifecycle impact of materials by sourcing materials locally and increasing our use of reclaimed and recycled content

Hornsby Quarry regeneration

Our Hornsby Quarry Construction Environmental Management Plan was approved this year and regeneration of the  Quarry is well underway. Spoil from NorthConnex tunneling will be used in the rehabilitation of the 35 hectare Hornsby Quarry – with plans for a community recreational facility to be built on the site by Hornsby Council. More than one million cubic metres of spoil are expected to be delivered to the site from NorthConnex, spoil that would otherwise have had to travel an additional 3.7 million truck kilometres for disposal.

This year we also updated our motorway design to create another 1.3 hectares of native vegetation for the local area. We also worked with the Hornsby Men’s Shed on completing the installation of 72 wildlife nest boxes.

Connecting with the community

NorthConnex’s two Community Involvement Groups comprise local representatives and senior project experts. These groups met quarterly to discuss project progress, planning and construction activities. The NorthConnex project team also provides learning opportunities for primary, secondary and tertiary students, and this year we launched a Tiny Tunnellers school holiday activities program. About 125 children have visited our West Pennant Hills information centre to learn about safety, the environment and tunneling.

For more information, refer to the NorthConnex website. NorthConnex also produced its own Sustainability Report for calendar year 2016.

UN Sustainable Development Goals relevant to this page