AUSTRALIA: TasRail has appointed a penguin specialist from BirdLife Tasmania to provide advice on the protection of habitats during coastal erosion and landslip prevention works which are expected to get underway in November.
The request for tenders requires the contractors to consider environmental constraints and bird life during the work at 13 sites on the Western Line and three sites on the South Line. The project is being undertaken as part of the Tasmanian Freight Rail Revitalisation programme, which has been allocated A$119·6m of federal and state infrastructure funding and runs to the end of June 2019.
‘This project is all about protecting our natural environment and working with the community to ensure much-needed works can occur to prevent coastal erosion and landslip near Tasmania’s rail corridor’, explained TasRail CEO Damien White on August 16. ‘This project will reduce the risk of track obstruction, improve network reliability and assist in the reduction of ongoing maintenance costs, enhancing TasRail’s capacity to deliver freight in a timely and safe manner on behalf of its customers.’