Forrestfield - Airport Link: Fire Engineering Support Services

Background
The Public Transport Authority has recently completed a Project Definition Plan (PDP) for the proposed Forrestfield-Airport Link Project, and is now looking to prepare a Reference Design and a Basis of Design and Construction (BDC) document to assist with future tendering and delivery of the works.

The Project is intended to provide improved public transport access for passengers from the surrounding areas as well as for airport passengers and staff. The project proposes a spur rail line from the Bayswater Station/Midland line through to the eastern suburb of Forrestfield. Its alignment will generally follow along Tonkin Highway and then deviate towards Perth Airport where it will run beneath the airport surfacing to the east.

There will be 3 stations and approximately 8.5 kilometres of track with a minimum of 4 kilometres of bored, twin tube tunnel depending upon the option selected. One of the stations, Consolidated Airport, is underground; another, Airport West, is proposed to be a combination of trough and cut & cover structures; and the third, Forrestfield is at grade.

As part of the PDP work, a concept design for the proposed stations and tunnels has been prepared. Associated with this task was initial fire engineering work which was undertaken as two separate commissions; one focussed on the stations and the other on the tunnel sections. The primary emphasis with both commissions has been on egress provisions with other fire safety solutions being adopted from other similar PTA projects for the purposes of the preliminary design.

As part of this approach, the tunnel egress provisions were subject to a quantitative risk analysis (QRA) to establish if extended distances between cross passages and similar could be justified. This work was undertaken because of the complexities associated with building cross passages in difficult ground conditions, and because of difficulties with construction below the airfield.


Scope of Services
Successful consultant to continue the fire engineering work previously undertaken covering the overall project including all three stations, the tunnels and other related elements.

The successful consultant shall continue the previous QRA work to confirm, refine and expand the outcomes from the earlier analysis; and will work closely with architects and building engineering consultants in preparing the Reference Design and BDC documentation.