Post Date: 13 December 2014

In September 2014, Mitchel Hanlon Consulting (MHC) was engaged by John Holland Rail Country Rail Network (JHR CRN) to provide survey and design services for the track upgrade of the Yanco to Griffith railway line. The section distance was 55 km.

The principal consideration in the tender brief was to design the track to a standard that would permit trains to generally operate at a track speed of 80 km/hr.

Survey work commenced in October 2014 with final project delivery in December 2014.

The work to complete the project comprised of :

• installation of permanent survey control marks along the length of the section.
• the undertaking of surveys to establish Map Grid of Australia coordinates on the control marks.
• the survey of the existing track running face on the curves and parts of the straights.
• the track re-design to enable the track class specification whilst minimising the amount of lateral track "pulls".
• the placement of sufficient track construction marks (TCMs) at each curve to allow the tamping crews to "pull" the track to the design geometry.