CABOOLTURE-based asphalt manufacturer and paving contractor Allens Asphalt recently completed a $3.6 million project for Queensland's Department of Main Roads to upgrade the busy Gympie Arterial Road, Brisbane's main northern access road.

Due to concerns about the safety of the highly deteriorated pavement, Main Roads offered Allens bonus incentives to complete the outbound carriageways before the Christmas holiday period. Main Roads supervising engineer Wade Mengel said he was impressed that Allens managed to achieve the Christmas deadline, given the high number of unseasonal wet nights that prevented the works proceeding as planned. He said the work of Allens construction manager Hugh Gillies was integral in achieving the outcome.

The works involved the profiled removal of 92,000 square metres of existing open graded surface, geotextile patching, the laying of 10,000 tonnes of high-strength, dense graded 14mm asphalt, the application of a polymer-modified 14mm strain alleviating membrane interlayer seal, and the laying of 5,600t of 14mm open graded asphalt surface layer.