Tonkin success at IPWEA SA Excellence Awards

The term sticky stones is a tag line for the research project where higher performing unsealed road materials perform better with a good grading and a fines content that helps hold (or stick) the stone in place.  What is a good grading and what makes the stone stick is the mystery and reason for the project.

Tonkin invested time to develop a solution to establish a protocol for testing, field monitoring and reporting of results using the learning from the research its was involved in 2008-2012 and as presented at the IPWC in Darwin in 2013.

With the learning from this research in 2013, and the lack of progress in applying this learning by industry, Tonkin initiated its own trials in 2018, referred to as Sticky Stones.

The Sticky Stones project started with no external clients, however once a solution was established, tested and demonstrated, the local government industry embraced and supported the approach. The services initially involved a discovery phase of learning from understanding the different laboratory properties of materials and linking them to actual measured field performance properties. Once a range of data was collected and analysed an algorithm is now continually being developed as more data becomes available. The aim is to be able to predict the field performance of unsealed road material, based on laboratory testing. This will ultimately equip local government with guiding principles when selecting and using material for unsealed roads.  It also provides Councils involved with access to information that is not readily available in the industry and is therefore of value. The project has now reported on 41 sites with a further 20 sites under monitoring. The learnings from each batch of results continue to help and refine performance predications. Work is also occurring now in pit material testings and rating performance based on the growing data set being developed.

We would like to express thanks to the following Councils for their ongoing dedication, commitment and support for the initiative over the last five years:
Yankalilla Council Peter Fowler, Patrick Langlands, Adelaide Hills Council Ashley Curtis, Light Regional Council Brian Carr, Richard Dodson and Jason Norman, Adelaide Plains Council Keith Earl, Tom Jones, Wakefield Regional Council Stuart Roberts, Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council Ian Smith, Goyder Regional Council Lee Wallis, Copper Coast Council Tim Neumann, Yorke Peninsula Council Michael McCauley, Barossa Council Bim Lange, Ben Clarke, Port Pirie Regional Council Kathryn Johnson, Rob Stead, Northern Areas Council Peter Porch and Shane Heness.

As a result of the flood state of emergency late in 2022 and the impeding risk to Riverland communities, Tonkin collaborated with Renmark Paringa Council, to develop a series of innovative, customised GIS emergency and asset management field mobility tools. 

These tools were used to help: 

Key objectives included:

With the threat of levee breaches being catastrophic to the community, the focus of the project was on levee banks and associated infrastructure. A field mobility tool was created in GIS Cloud using Council’s data to assess the levees for their suitability for protection based on the predicted water levels and their current condition. As the flood water progressed, the objectives evolved further into a need for developing a daily monitoring system so weaknesses and defects could be logged and if necessary, escalated to SES. This was delivered in the form of live online maps where mangers could locate and assess urgency of the works. 

Due to the involvement of SES, the project expanded to apply learnings from Renmark to other Riverland councils and State Government (SES and DEW) where further GIS tools were developed to visualise problem areas during the flood. Finally, at the conclusion of the flood, a GIS tool was developed to assess damage for funding purposes as well as immediate works. Tonkin’s role in stakeholder engagement was in collaboration with Renmark Council who were key drivers for the solution.

Thank you to Tarik Wolf and Shannon Baxter from Renmark Paringa who were instrumental in driving the initiatives and solutions.