WestConnex is Australia’s largest road project, connecting western and south-western Sydney to the city, airport and harbour via a continuous 33 km underground highway.

This extensive tunnel system was constructed in several stages, linking the tunnels underground after the completion of stage 3A. SICE provided a solution that maintains the safety of previously completed stages while integrating new stages into the network.

SICE was involved in all phases of the project, carrying out the design, supply, testing and commissioning of the Operations Management and Control System (OMCS) and all critical subsystems.

–M4 East: The first underground section of WestConnex, with 5.5 km of tunnels and 7.5 km of surface roads, connects the M4 in Parramatta to the west, and Wattle Street and Parramatta Road in Haberfield to the east. This new tunnel was developed to ease congestion and reduce travel times, saving road users up to 35 minutes. As part of the project, SICE incorporated the M4 West motorway into the M4 East OMCS, integrating all existing M4 West field equipment.

–M8: Formerly called the “New M5”, this stage provides new twin underground tunnels measuring 9km each, running from Kingsgrove to a new interchange at St Peters. The M8 doubles the capacity of the M5 East tunnel and saves drivers approximately 30 minutes travel time between south-west Sydney and the southern city centre.

–M4-M8 Link: This new 7.5km tunnel connects the M4 at Haberfield to the M8 at St Peters, with future connections to the Anzac and Iron Cove bridges via the Rozelle Interchange. At this stage, SICE delivered an Integrated OMCS (IOMCS) that integrates all the WestConnex operational OMCSs into one, allowing complete operation of all parts of the motorway from a single system.

–Rozelle Interchange: connects the M4 with the Anzac Bridge and the M8 with the City West Link and Victoria Road, offering a toll-free bypass on Victoria Road known as the Iron Cove Link, and connections to the future Western Harbour Tunnel. With more than 24 kilometres of interlocking and overlapping tunnels, this interchange saves up to 19 minutes during the morning rush hour on a journey between Parramatta and central Sydney.

SICE delivered the following systems for the project:

-Operations Management and Control System (OMCS).

-CCTV and Digital Video Management System (DVMS).

-Signalling (VMS, TMS, LUMS/ISLUS, VSLS).

-Voice Communication Systems (METS, FETS, IOCS).

-Tunnel closure systems.

-Vehicle detection systems.

-ITS-related cabinets.

-Hosting platform and control room equipment (Workstations, Video Wall).

-Automatic Video Incident Detection (AVID) Systems.

-Overheight Vehicle Detection System (OHVDS).

-Motorway Network Communication System (MNCS) including fibre, switches and firewalls.

-Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) network, including PLC, remote IO, switches, cabinets, etc.

In addition, SICE was contracted to carry out maintenance activities throughout the highway, providing preventive maintenance and 24/7 support to resolve any issues that may arise during normal operations of any of the systems delivered.