The inaugural Newcastle 500 was held in November 2017 and was hailed a major success for the Sport and the City.

iEDM were engaged by Supercars Australia to provide all site identification, feasibility, design, engineering and project management services for the project, which included substantial civil / enabling works as well as the overlay and event planning.

The Newcastle Event site was located on the edge of the CBD, encompassed many businesses, around 3,000 residents, 3 public beaches, parklands and various other public areas. Logistically, these projects require a very high level of planning, stakeholder communication and design.

Initially, the civil works were only to include minimal works required to make the streets safe for Supercars racing. However, it was soon realised that the project could achieve a tremendous legacy to the area of Newcastle East if we could conduct significant streetscape and services upgrades into the area at the same time.

The services in Newcastle East were dilapidated and some water mains close to 100 years old. The project was able to deliver upgrades to water, stormwater, electrical infrastructure, as well as new footpaths, roads, smart infrastructure and landscaping.

iEDM had only 12 months to design, plan and deliver around $25M of major CBD upgrade works into a City steeped in cultural and natural heritage.

With the assistance of the NSW Government, we were able to engage at a strong level with all Authority and Utility stakeholders, which was essential to meet the required time frames.

All construction was completed in time for the Event to occur. Given the volume of work, this was a significant achievement.

The Event was hailed as a major success, with over 192,000 persons attending over the 3 days.

iEDM delivered all temporary infrastructure, including over 4,000 grandstand seats, 1500 concrete barriers and debris fence, a 2,000 sqm 3-storey pit building, over 15,000 square metres of temporary structure, 5 temporary bridges, 42 generators, 260 temporary toilets, 55 portable buildings and approximately 15km’s of temporary fencing.

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