The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has awarded the A$200 million (£144 million) Inland Rail Tottenham to Albury upgrade contract to McConnell Dowell.

Inland Rail is a 1,700 kilometre freight rail project connecting Melbourne and Brisbane via regional Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

The Tottenham to Albury section (T2A) will upgrade 305km of existing rail corridor between metropolitan Melbourne and the Victoria-NSW border at Albury-Wodonga.

A contract valued at approximately A$200 million, Tranche 1 includes four rail enhancement sites located in central and northern Victoria as well as corridor wide signalling and track slew works. The project is due for completion by McConnell Dowell in early 2025.

McConnell Dowell secured the contract following previous collaborations with ARTC’s Inland Rail team. The contractor has committed to employing as many people local to the project alignment as possible.

The T2A Tranche 1 contract is expected to support work for more than 170 people over the life of the project.

The works will include bridge replacements at Glenrowan, Wangaratta and Seymour, a new pedestrian underpass at Wangaratta, track lowering and corridor-wide signalling works, track slews and overhead utilities works.

Tom Foley, McConnell Dowell’s T2A project manager, explained “Tranche 1 of Inland Rail in Victoria will bring tens of millions of dollars of new investment into Victorian towns such as Wangaratta, Glenrowan, Seymour and Barnawartha, and McConnell Dowell is extremely proud to have a part to play in this.”

“This project will create fresh opportunities for existing businesses, while supporting the establishment and growth of new businesses.”

He added: “Our team has worked night and day with the ARTC Inland Rail team over the past two years to make this vision a reality. We are very much looking forward to getting boots on the ground and building infrastructure that will change the way that freight moves around Australia for our future generations.”