Greener Roads for Melbourne’s North

April 26, 2022

Alex Fraser’s new asphalt plant at its Northern Sustainable Supply Hub in Epping is taking shape, with the plant set to be commissioned in late 2022.

Project Manager Kate Lynch said the site has made impressive progress since they broke ground only a month ago.

Project Manager Kate Lynch and Project Support Eddie Rincon-Marquez are overseeing the build of Alex Fraser’s Epping Asphalt plant.

“In a little over three and a half weeks the site has gone from plans and flat ground to a hive of activity. Early civils are underway and stormwater has been laid.”

“Last week we had blinding poured on the asphalt plant slab and tank farm slabs using our friends at Hanson’s latest sustainable concrete mix, containing recycled crushed concrete aggregates, and today we are getting the tank farm slab in – one of the biggest pours on the project.”

“Planning around contractors and the concrete deliveries takes a bit of preparation, but it’s good to see it all coming together.”

Project Support Eddie Rincon-Marquez manages the civil contractors on site and keeps everyone safe and informed.

“I’m overseeing all of the civil contractors on the project, and this morning, like every morning we run a pre-start meeting to confirm what went well the day before, what we could work on or improve. Our contractors are really receptive, and actively follow our safety rules and procedures which makes it a much smoother workday for everyone.”

Kate said consistent and open communication with all stakeholders has been an important focus in keeping the project on track.

“We have weekly meetings with the Project Team, fortnightly meetings with our external stakeholders to see where everything is at and monthly meetings with the steering committee. There are always some things that are beyond our control – we have a total of 11 shipments coming from Germany and we’ve received about half of that already.”

Eddie adds, “It’s been exciting to work with Hanson on this project, seeing the two different companies come together to build this asphalt plant is a fantastic collaboration.”