Road maintenance, tunnels and incident response

Our specialist teams are dedicated to researching, developing and delivering road rehabilitation and maintenance products and methodologies that enhance safety and asset life. Our comprehensive approach ensures the best maintenance intervention is selected for the specific network challenge or requirement.

Our capability and expertise in road and tunnel maintenance is diverse. In Australia we manage complex tunnel systems, such as CityLink in Melbourne and NorthConnex in Sydney, where we maintain the tunnels’ vital infrastructure including fire safety systems, and ventilation, and provision of 24/7 incident response. In New Zealand, as part of the Milford Road Alliance with the NZ Transport Agency, we maintain and manage the Homer Tunnel and its avalanche sensors which are critical to the tunnel’s safety.

Our relationships with asset owners like the NZ Transport Agency, local councils and Australian State Road authorities are long standing and are at the centre of our targeted road maintenance solutions. Partnerships like the Tararua Alliance in New Zealand’s central North Island see us working collaboratively with customers and stakeholders to generate consistent value and whole of life asset and network benefits.

Downer provides unsealed road grading services across Australia and New Zealand as part of routine road maintenance contracts, which include grading and open drain works. In Victoria, Baw Baw Shire Council relies on Downer to maintain approximately 1,000 km of road grading and 750 km of unsealed shoulder grading annually. In New Zealand, the Tararua District, through the Tararua Alliance, delivers routine grading, high shoulder drainage and aggregate application, with seasonal grading focused on strategic forestry and farming routes.

With extensive resource availability across the regions, and deep understanding of network hotspots and priorities, we also provide highly responsive and effective 24/7 incident and emergency response, including initial immediate response and medium-to-long term disaster recovery and rebuild. In New Zealand, Downer played an integral role in the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes response and rebuild alliances, and we continue to act as the go-to responder, working alongside Civil Defence and Councils’ disaster response and recovery for major events like the Nelson floods, and Cyclone Gabrielle and as part of the Transport Rebuild East Coast (TREC) Alliance, in New Zealand. In Australia, our teams are skilled and equipped to respond to destructive flood events like those experienced by Queensland and Victoria in recent years.