Further design was commissioned by Ewing VDM for the on-island facilities including, drainage designs, and upgrades to existing roads and hardstand areas.

Key Considerations

• Finucane Island access road design to ensure all weather access.
• Modelling of numerous alignment options to minimise earthworks costs while meeting tight vertical geometry requirements due to performance limitations for fully loaded vehicles.
• Haul road design in steep terrain ensuring safe decent of loaded haul vehicles.
• Design of intersection and roads to Main Roads WA Standards and Specifications.
• Design of road embankment over soft estuarine muds.
• Design of road embankment culverts to allow for tidal and storm surge flows.
• Design of borrow pit areas.

Project Challenges

All Weather Mine Access

A requirement was for all culverts to be designed to ensure the existing tidal movements were not negatively impacted.

Estuarine Muds

Design of road embankment earthworks was challenging due to being located on mudflats across to Finucane Island. JDSi oversaw the embankment and pavement design process and developed a design solution requiring extensive use of geotextiles to support earthworks and control settlement underneath the road embankment areas.

Road Upgrade

With the Finucane Island access road being a public road, designs had to accommodate the shared road usage with large road trains and light vehicles. MRWA and the Town of Port Hedland specified tight safety controls and design guidelines during the documentation and design process.