Large-scale road and busway tunnels demand fire protection design that ties together dozens of moving parts. With more than 45 years of experience, DKnapp Fire Design Pty Ltd (DKFD) has contributed to one of Queensland's most complex tunnel projects, the Legacy Way (formerly Brisbane Airport Link Road) and Busway Tunnels in Brisbane, also known as the Northern City Bypass Tunnels (NCBT).
Fire Protection Design for QLD Tunnels
Legacy Way & Busway Tunnels, Brisbane QLD
This project called for a fire protection system built to serve tunnels on a huge scale. The infrastructure was designed with UGL Infrastructure NSW, and success came down to careful coordination between the fire system, the fire alarm and detection interface, and every other trade on site—electrical, lighting, ventilation, civil and fit-out services.
The numbers tell the story of the project's scale:
The numbers tell the story of the project's scale:
A Smarter Way to Build
One standout innovation on this project was mobile services scaffolding. Rather than each trade working in isolation, this purpose-built rig moved along the tunnel length, letting fire, electrical, Internal use only - Confidential ventilation and other teams share access and install their infrastructure elements together. The result was faster progress and better coordination across the whole build — a practical example of the problem-solving mindset we bring to every tunnel.
