Mitchell Freeway Southbound Rectification Works
Client:
Intelligent Freeways Alliance
Owner: Main Roads WA
Site Location:
Mitchell Freeway, Southbound
Completed: Ongoing
Project Manager: Joseph Arrigo
Project Planned: Dylan Kent
Site Lead Technician: Dylan Kent
Lightspeed Communications and Electrical were engaged by Intelligent Freeway Alliance (IFA) to rectify the issue of a single point of failure within the pathway of Tonkin Hwy & Micthell Freeway. This means that should any cables and electrical infrastructure in these areas does not have a failsafe should the network be subjected to any incident.
Lightspeed communications were instrumental in providing the redundant fibre path from Tonkin Highway back to the Main Roads Western Australia (MRWA) data centres within the months of March-May 2025. Completing any major modifications or migrations prior to the restoration of this redundant path was challenging, time-restricted, and risky.
* CAB002 (Cedric Node): Predominantly star topology, with devices connected directly back to the node cabinet.
* CAB004 (Hammersley Node) and CAB026 (Kingsley Node): Also, predominantly star topology.
* CAB003 (Powis Node): Generally redundant REP loop
The extensive use of star topology at CAB002 means that many devices are directly reliant on this node. Any disruption at CAB002 could have widespread impacts on the network’s performance and reliability.
To plan the cutover, Lightspeed technicians and project managers worked with IFA and Main Roads to inspect the existing fibre optic network and plan fibre optic splicing and testing up and down the freeway.
With the need to keep disruption to freeway traffic to a minimum Lightspeeds team of technicians worked night and day to replace joints and then cut and replace the network to bring services back up as quickly as possible whilst also testing from multiple locations throughout the city.
As with all major changes to networks the shorter downtime the better and this project was no different with major links back up and running within 2 hours of the first cable cut taking place and all fibre works complete within the planned 12-hour outage window with all connections up and running.
Lightspeed Communications and Electrical are proud to again be part of a project that will benefit the community for many years to come.