Road surfacing
Communities across Australia and New Zealand experience smoother, safer, and longer-lasting roads thanks to Downer’s customer-first approach in asphalt surfacing, and spray sealing solutions.
Enhanced ride quality, reduced maintenance needs, and improved safety are consistently delivered by our teams in both metropolitan and regional areas.
Long-standing partnerships with road authorities, councils, and private clients have enabled the successful completion of some of Australia and New Zealand’s most high-profile infrastructure initiatives, including freeway upgrades, airport runways, and city-shaping developments. Recognition through industry awards for quality, safety, and sustainability is testament to our commitment to the communities we serve.
Deep technical knowledge in pavement engineering and surfacing, developed over decades of experience, ensures delivery excellence across a broad range of projects. With significant asphalt and emulsion manufacturing, product development, construction and maintenance capabilities, we offer customers targeted solutions that generate whole of life efficiencies and value across their asset base.
With one of the largest asphalt production and surfacing operations in Australia and New Zealand, we provide a comprehensive suite of asphalt paving solutions, including pavement and mix design, road reseal applications to address surface and shape defects, surface levelling, and full-depth pavement reconstructions. We operate an extensive fleet of paving and profiling equipment, capable of delivering projects of any size to a consistently high standard. The breadth of our asphalt production, pavement design and surfacing operation also underpins our provision of specialist pavements and solutions for ports, wharves, airport and railways.
A strong commitment to sustainable, innovative surfacing technologies means low-carbon mixes and smart emulsions are used to extend pavement life and reduce environmental impact. Multiple recycling asphalt facilities with the latest technology underpin a circular economy approach, transforming waste streams such as RAP, soft plastics, glass, and crumbed rubber into valuable construction inputs.
Customers also benefit from our significant spray sealing (in Australia)/ chip sealing (in New Zealand), operations and solutions for city, regional and remote road networks. Our services include single and multilayer coats, emulsion and crumb rubber seals, geofabric-reinforced layers, and polymer-modified options designed to extend pavement life, reduce maintenance, and support environmental goals.
Solutions
Specialised pavements
The resilience of infrastructure like ports, wharves, rail and airports are critical to the economy and Downer is at the forefront of providing customers with innovative pavement treatments to maintain high standards of operational performance. Our best practice asset management and technology driven solutions are developed through close collaboration with customers, with a focus on sustainability, asset preservation and enhancing safety, resilience and ability to meet increasing operational demands.
Airports
To preserve and extend the life of airport pavements we utilise innovative pavement treatments, design and water management, as well as digital engineering and 4D modelling, to work alongside designers to improve the accuracy and efficiency of construction and maintenance planning. Products like Rhinophalt™ and Enviroshield preserve and extend the life of airport pavements, prolonging the duration between resurfacing and resheeting works, which also drives significant carbon emissions reduction. For example, through application of Rhinophalt™, Sydney Airport has been able to delay planned runway resheet works by over five years so far—and hope to gain another two to three years through recent further treatment. That's around 23 years between resheet works on a critical airfield pavement.
In Australia key airport projects include, Bankstown Airport (taxiway and apron rehabilitation), Sydney Airport (domestic 2 & 3 apron and taxilane reconstruction, Hobart Airport (upgrades), Albury Airport (taxiway reconstruction and extension), RAAF Base Williamtown (upgrade), Adelaide Airport (landside road reconstruction). In New Zealand and the Pacific, some of key projects are Invercargill Airport (reseal), Tokelau Airfield, Tuvalu Runway rehabilitation, Niue Hanan International Airport (upgrade), and Solomon Islands provincial airport upgrade.
Motor racing tracks
Downer provides end-to-end design, delivery, and maintenance services for racetrack infrastructure. Our specialised pavement mix designs—engineered for high-speed performance, grip, and abrasion resistance—have been integral to the Albert Park F1 circuit upgrade, where over 9,000 tonnes of high-performance asphalt were laid.
Ports
We have a long track record of design and construction of wharves and maintaining ports. Our capabilities include land reclamation, streetscape, wharves, jetties and marinas, crane and gantry infrastructure, hardstand pavements, resurfacing, customised paving solutions, facilities management, technical network solutions and lighting installations.
In New Zealand, we provide CentrePort in Wellington with pavement, resurfacing and renewals maintenance – including innovative heavy-duty asphalt pavements to meet the heavy design loadings in this port environment.
Downer has delivered asphalt upgrades across multiple Australian ports, with Port Asphalt solutions tailored to meet specific performance targets in demanding port environments. Recent projects include the Lucinda Drive and Bingerra Drive, River Drive & Boat Ramp upgrades at Brisbane Port, totalling over 19,000 tonnes of asphalt.
These works are supported by high-performance mixes developed by the Road Science Product Development Team, including ArmourPave—engineered for heavy-duty applications such as container terminals, intermodal facilities and docksides. ArmourPave combines selected mineral aggregates, fillers, and polymer-modified binders, optimised for high resistance to deformation, point load durability and enhanced permeability.
Innovative road surfacing research and development
Downer provides a comprehensive range of science-driven innovative, sustainable road and pavement products and solutions. We work closely with customers and the operational teams applying our products to ensure they are robust and fit for purpose.
With dedicated research and development resources through our National Research and Development Laboratory in Australia (now called Road Science Australia) and our Road Science business in New Zealand, we are at the forefront of shaping innovative solutions targeted to current and future road network needs.
Innovative road surfacing in New Zealand
Our Road Science brand leads the way in advancing the road industry through the design and supply of cutting-edge bitumen and bitumen-based products, as well as comprehensive road condition surveying services. Leveraging its significant import and distribution capability supported by world class assets, Road Science provides expertly engineered solutions to New Zealand pavement conditions
Innovative Road & Pavement Solutions – Road Science
As part of our continued investment in state-of-the-art sustainable operations, Road Science established a fully electrified 5-million-litre bitumen tank at Lyttelton Port in Christchurch. They also commissioned an electric hybrid heating system at their Bluff bitumen plant. This transition reduced peak energy demand from 1.3 MW to 200 kW and virtually eliminated diesel usage.
Case study: Electrifying Change: Our Bluff Bitumen Plant leads our low-carbon journey – Road Science
Road Science has also developed the first non-petroleum-based bitumen alternative, Bio-Bind, which delivers carbon reduction benefits. When used by itself, the performance is comparable to bitumen, with a reduction in CO2e. This binder is compatible with bitumen and can be blended to achieve carbon neutral treatments.
Innovative road surfacing in Australia
Road Science Australia operates a NATA‑accredited laboratory specialising in construction materials testing. We offer a suite of sustainable products and solutions contributing to the circular economy include Reconophalt™, Low Carbon Asphalt and high RAP mixes with lower emissions by Downer and BioBind and EME2. Longer-lasting pavements, reduced carbon footprint and reduced asset lifecycle costs are some of the benefits realised through these products.
In Australia the bulk of bitumen supply is imported, primarily through Bitumen Imports Australia (BIA)—a 50:50 joint venture between Downer and Boral.
Road surfacing solutions
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