Post Date: 1 December 2015

John Holland Rail Country Rail Network (JHR CRN) has contracted Mitchel Hanlon Consulting for the survey and track design for 13 km of the Bowenfels to Wallerawang section of the Main West railway near Lithgow and 105 km of the Kootingal to Armidale section on the Main North railway north of Tamworth. Both lines are located within the NSW Country Rail Network managed by John Holland Rail.
 

The Lithgow project involves double track and the 1 km long Marrangaroo tunnel built in 1923. It extends from the Sydney metropolitan electrification at Bowenfels west to the Wallerawang station platform. The track crosses the 1921 Farmers Bridge brick railway viaduct. This bridge sits adjacent to the 1870 brick viaduct designed by John Whitton Engineer-in-Chief of the NSW Government Railways and one of the oldest rail bridges in Australia. This line services the western parts of NSW and beyond to South Australia and Western Australia.
 

The Kootingal - Armidale line primarily carries passenger traffic to the current rail terminus at Armidale. The track alignment has not appreciably changed since it was built in the early 1880s.
 

The tender brief requires the track design be applied to allow trains to operate at an ideal track speed of 80 km/hr but minimises track lateral shifts or “pull”. The work to be completed includes installation of permanent survey control marks to Map Grid of Australia coordinates, survey of existing rail track, track re-design and placement of track construction marks for tamping crews to "pull" the track to the design geometry.
 

Survey work commenced in Sept 2015 with final project document delivery in June 2016.