Horsham Rural City Council: The Wimmera Intermodal Freight Terminal
Posted under: The Wimmera Intermodal Freight Terminal [ WIFT] was a unique project for local government as it involved Local Government Engineers and their consultants, delivering a railway project , on the national railway network.
The site, 15kms north of Horsham , had no services provided, requiring significant liaison to service the site,together with involved legal issues to gain freehold title to the land and during construction simultaneously appointment of an operator. Thus full B-double compatible access local public roads, 1.8km long, highway intersection creation and lighting, water supply, electricity, drainage infrastructure, a huge concrete hardstand, lighting (which is significant for an intermodal interchange to operate 24 hours), 5 new road-railway level crossings, as well as a large office, toilets and carparking had to be installed to the different agencies standards. Full planning permits for each stage had to be provided.
The whole lot required project management over seven years , from concept design and estimating, funding sourcing from Federal Government, State Government, private funding, plus Local Government. It was necessary to establish a Regional economic opportunity catalyst influence over five municipal areas.
The project required the best practice for national railway operations to be engineered into the green-fields site , thus accommodating the Track work and Signalling required for the planned “super container freight train, rail logistics”. It consisted of two turn –out connections to the main Adelaide to Melbourne rail line, loops and 1.8 km of line, with all the associated, drainage, formation, ballasting, track laying and signal manufacture and installation.. The standards for national railways are very exacting, and there was a very large final audit process, for both the tracks and the operations of the signals into the national rail system, that took months to be completed.