The new Alice Springs to Darwin railway is open for business. The first south-north transcontinental freight train to Darwin departed Adelaide on 15 January. The 1.3km-long train, headed by two new 2862kW locos built by EDI Rail in Port Augusta, attracted huge interest on the three day journey, with many thousands of people attending public celebrations at key centres and lining the track-side along the route.

Special indigenous artwork on the two new locomotives recognises the extensive involvement of, and collaboration with, the Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory. Northern Land Council (NLC) chief executive Norman Fry said: 'When we signed the single Land Use Agreement with the NT Government in April 2001 - under which traditional owners gave their consent for the railway to be built on their land - the consortium and its contractors committed themselves to providing 50 job placements and training for indigenous workers over the life of the project in the NLC's area. By the end of 2002, more than 150 job placements for Aboriginal workers had been secured with the contractors, and more than 200 Aboriginal people in the NLC's area had participated in railway training programs.'

While the line was built mainly for freight traffic, a lot of interest has been generated by the new 2979km transcontinental passenger journey from Adelaide. The first Ghan departed Adelaide on its inaugural journey to Darwin on 1 February 2004, arriving in Darwin on 3 February. The train comprised two locomotives pulling 43 carriages with a total mass of 2000t.

The project is an engineering achievement, with construction of 1420km of track and 93 bridges being completed five months early and within budget, for a total cost of $1.4 billion. The private sector contributed $750 million, while the Federal, SA and NT governments contributed the remainder.

With financial close in April 2001, tracklaying began in April 2002 with a contracted completion date of April 2004. Rapid construction saw the final thermit weld at the Alice Springs connection with the existing line being made on 18 September 2003 and the construction was complete by late October. The single track standard gauge project required 15 million cubic metres of earthworks, 1500 culverts, and 93 bridges including three major structures. For freight the line links with the expanded Port of Darwin, while an interim passenger facility has been built adjacent to the Darwin Business Park in Berrimah. Completion of the line brings to fulfilment a 94-year promise. On 1 January 1911 the Northern Territory was transferred from South Australia to the Commonwealth. As part of the transfer agreement, with enabling legislation (Northern Territory Acceptance Act 1910) the commonwealth undertook to 'construct, or cause to be constructed, a railway line from Port Darwin southwards to a point on the northern boundary of South Australia proper'.

KBR (Kellogg Brown and Root Pty Ltd) was the driving force behind the creation of Asia Pacific Transport, the private sector consortium that won the contract to finance, build, maintain and operate the Alice Springs-Darwin rail link. The other consortium members are John Holland, Barclay Mowlem, Macmahon and Australian Railroad Group (ARG). ADrail was formed to design and build the railway, FreightLink was established to operate the rail freight services between Adelaide and Darwin, while BIB will maintain the railway from Tarcoola (the junction with the east-west line in SA) to Darwin.

As project managers for Trackworks North, Barclay Mowlem was responsible for 649km of tracklaying. Commencing in mid-April 200 1, the team initially proceeded southward from Katherine and met the Tennant Creek based southern trackwork team midway before relocating to Katherine to lay track north to Darwin, which was completed on 18 September 2003. The team constructed 2.4km of track most days, well in excess of its scheduled target. Barclay Mowlem also constructed five major bridges spanning the Katherine, Edith, Adelaide, Cullen and Elizabeth Rivers, the refurbishment of the Fergusson River Bridge and three Katherine floodplain bridges.

Austrak , a wholly owned subsidiary of Barclay Mowlem, supplied 2 million concrete sleepers from two purpose-built factories in Katherine and Tennant Creek.

John Holland was involved in the overall design and construction of the railway and provided the expertise for the building of 85 bridges, precasting of bridge structures and management of Trackworks South, which built the remaining 771km of line.

MacMahon's contribution included project management and engineering secondment for the line's 15 million cubic metres of earthworks and drainage; sourcing of construction materials and water; remote area logistics; equipment maintenance; the provision of the large earthmoving fleet and much of the labour for the earthworks component.

ARG was contracted to provide train services for the construction of the rail- way. From the commencement of regular operations ARG operates freight trains between Adelaide and Darwin on behalf of FreightLink. ARG provides crews, rail infrastructure services (which include train control and safe-working management) and general technical support to FreightLink as well as being the accredited operator. ARG manages all safeworking between Tarcoola and Darwin for all rail operators and maintainers. ARG also provides rolling stock to FreightLink with the supply of four locomotives and initially up to 100 container wagons.

The key focus for the freight operation business plan recognises the rail- way's important role in the NT government's ambitions to promote Darwin as Australia's Asian gateway. FreightLink will run five freight trains per week of up to 1.8km in length, increasing to six services as customer demand increases.

FreightLink CEO Bruce McGowan said: 'The first major business for the new line is expected to be existing Darwin-bound freight, which went to Alice Springs by rail and then north by road. Up to 350,OOOt of fuel and general products are already carried by road and rail. There is potential to increase this to over 800,OOOt during the first few years of operations. Darwin's proximity to the burgeoning Asian markets to our immediate north provides an exciting opportunity for an alternative trade route. The NT capital is the obvious centre for trade between the busy markets of Australia's southeast and ports in Asia. Singapore, our seventh largest bilateral trading partner, is about four days away by sea; Hong Kong and Port Klang are five.' McGowan said.

KBR's senior international vice-president Andrew Fletcher said: 'Opening this landbridge to Asia will create exciting opportunities both domestically and internationally, boosting both economic development and trade. This is a long- term project, and KBR is in it for the long haul. The Alice to Darwin Railway has inspired many great innovations, for example, clever, modular bridge designs by KBR's engineers which enabled 93 bridges to be built at an average of one bridge a week. The logistics of managing a significant workforce in a harsh environment, placing more than 25,000 orders for goods and services, and synchronising the movement of millions of tonnes of earth, sleepers and rails have called for great precision. We're proud that the expertise to achieve projects of this magnitude is Australian.' he said.

Managing Director of John Holland Bill Wild said: 'More than 5.5 million man hours, involving over 1100 people, demonstrated to the world that the Australian construction industry can manage infrastructure projects of a truly massive scale. Add to that the fact that the many teams involved in the project came from all around the nation and worked on a site about 1420km in length - which few projects in the world could boast. Landmark projects like this don't come along all that often'.

Credit - Engineer Australia 2004