Newcastle 500 Supercars Street Circuit
Over 190,000 people attended the Newcastle 500 Supercars season finale in 2017.
The race required the design and construction of a 2.6km street circuit, through the inner-city CBD. It also involved significant civil and infrastructure works, undertaken prior to the event.
Northrop was responsible for the design and documentation of all engineering services, including concept and detailed design for civil, electrical, lighting, communications, hydraulic, structural and geotechnical. Northrop also provided construction supervision for the entire works.
In addition, Northrop also prepared concept and detailed design for a section of the Bathers Way and foreshore improvement works along Newcastle Beach and Shortland Esplanade. This section formed an integral and picturesque part of the race track as well as part of the greater Newcastle foreshore connectivity strategy which stretches from Merewether Ocean Baths to Newcastle Harbour.
Northrop helped deliver a world-class race track through the inner-city CBD, that integrates with normal city activities for the remainder of the year. We were able to maximise the use of existing road and service infrastructure, minimise construction activities and impact on the local community, whilst maximising improvements to the road and utility services infrastructure.
The project brought forward decades of required infrastructure upgrades to the East End of Newcastle and the CBD and was completed in less than six months. Under normal circumstances, this magnitude of inner city revitalisation (e.g. new and improved roads and pathways, stormwater and water main infrastructure, electrical and communications infrastructure, lighting, decontamination, parkland improvements) would typically have taken well over 5 years for planning, investigation, design and construction.