Middleborough Rd

Middleborough Rd cutting

Middleborough Rd grade separation was a pioneer project in Victoria for the full line closure approach with construction on line. The closure occurred in January 2007.

Peter Burns as part of the Alliance Management team was imbedded on the contracted Designer’s team to ensure that the good outcomes achieved at Pakenham could also be achieved by this project.

The project required a temporary interlocking with turnback to be provided at Blackburn, but it also required that the full commissioning time for this interlocking be less than 2 hours (between last train 1 January and first train the day after).

Temp bus interchange at Blackburn

This challenging commissioning timeframe was achieved, supported by an extensive schedule of preparatory works carried out over the 2 months prior.

The changeover requirement also meant that the existing relay interlocking and the new CBI needed to be located in the Relay Room together in the period leading up to commissioning.

This was achieved in the confined space by initially mounting the new racks onto rollers; then moving them into their final position after the then redundant relay racks had been removed from the relay room.

Blackburn RR with roller mounted racks

Following its success, this project became a model for many other grade separation projects going forward.

Connex PMs inspecting new Laburnum station