Project: Client: Contractor: Western Highway, Gordon (VIC) VICROADS VICROADS Megaflo® flat pipe drainage system Victoria’s rural arterial roads are the lifeblood of a number of major Victorian industries. They provide vital links between regional centres and more remote communities. The Western Highway at Gordon is part of the principle road transport link between Melbourne and Adelaide. The highway carries a high proportion of commercial vehicles and also provides tourist access to Ballarat, The Grampians, various wineries and Adelaide itself. Access along the Western Highway has been and is being improved by various overpasses and major highway deviations to bypass small rural towns. The works at Gordon involved the rehabilitation of 7.9 kilometres of the Ballarat bound carriageway. The contract was a design and construct package and included subsoil drainage of both sides of the carriageway. Geofabrics engineers offered Megaflo® 300mm pipe to the successful contractor as an alternative to the Class 1000mm round pipe. Megaflo® 300 was approved by VicRoads and incorporated into the design of the project. Incorporating Megaflo® 300 into the overall project proved to be an attractive alternative with significant cost savings in backfill, materials and excavation costs. The overall savings were in the order of 14%. Megaflo® 300 is ideal for pavements constructed on low and even gradients creating rapid flows as opposed to conventional drains where settlement of silt occurs at low flows, which can result in reduced flow capacity or in the worstcase total blockage.