Warringah Freeway Upgrade Early Works
OVERVIEW
The Warringah Freeway is one of Australia’s busiest and most complex motorways with up to 250,000 users daily. The upgrade will connect to the future Western Harbour Tunnel, creating a western bypass of the Sydney CBD and improving transport capacity in and around Sydney Harbour.
Sydney Program Alliance (SPA) is a joint venture with John Holland, Jacobs and Transport for NSW, carrying out three work packages for the Warringah Freeway Upgrade early works. Becscomm consultants are embedded within the team and are helping deliver a services and utilities relocation program.
Responsible for both strategic oversight and on the ground delivery of communications and engagement, the team has simultaneous coverage of multiple work areas throughout Cammeray, Kirribilli, Neutral Bay and North Sydney.
Project success requires close collaboration with Transport to effectively communicate and engage with stakeholders and the community about the project.
OUR APPROACH
• Establishing and upholding project reputation was paramount in a highly visible urban environment. This was achieved through a targeted grassroots engagement campaign which included frequent doorknocking by Place Managers to build on relationships with residents and capture feedback to plan for and deliver future engagement activities.
• An agile response to tight timeframes and complex conditions due to COVID-19 restrictions. This approach maintained the day-to-day engagement with stakeholders and the community in a timely and sensitive manner.
• Adopting a variety of traditional and digital engagement tools allowing the community to engage with the project in a way that best met their needs. Special attention was given to building on relationships with nearby residents.
• Developing customised email distribution lists and groups allowing the wider team to provide targeted and local information.
• A commitment to fostering close internal relationships with construction and environmental teams, allowed for construction activities to be planned with community feedback as critical considerations in the planning and delivery phases.
SELECTED ACHIEVEMENTS
🗸 Worked closely with Transport to reduce impacts to residents by removing over 50 night shifts during stay-at-home orders.
🗸 Worked closely with Transport to proactively engage over 7,000 residents to understand community feedback and identify opportunities for further mitigation measures that continued to build on the relationships going forward.
🗸 Multiple consultants were embedded on the project across three grades of experience, providing the client with consistency and of a high standard.
🗸 A customised approach was developed to distributing large volumes of collaterals which provided specific details of work in those areas. This approach assisted in keeping the community informed about changes occurring in their neighbourhood.