Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway Upgrade - Koala Monitoring Services - Years 10-15

TfNSW seeks experienced ecological specialists to undertake population monitoring for years 10–15 in accordance with Woolgoolga to Ballina, Pacific Highway Upgrade, Koala Management Plan V6, Sept 2024. Scope The Principal is seeking Tenders from suitably qualified and experienced Tenderers for the supply of Services required for the Project. This RFT outlines the details to be provided by Tenderers and sets out the requirements and conditions for the Tender. This RFT includes the documents which will form the basis of the Contract under which the successful Tenderer will be engaged. The Project The Project involves Koala monitoring services – Years 10 -15 The Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway upgrade comprises approximately 155 kilometres of highway achieving a four-lane divided road extending north of Woolgoolga at the northern extent of Sapphire to Woolgoolga to south of Ballina at the southern extent of the Ballina bypass. The project includes grade separated interchanges, service roads and upgrades to local road connections. The Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade (the Project / the action) has been declared State Significant Infrastructure (SSI). Approvals were granted under Part 5.1 of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) on 24 June 2014 and under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) on 14 August 2014. The Project was opened to traffic in 2020. The Projects Koala Management Plan (KMP) includes a detailed monitoring program to determine the effectiveness of mitigation measures. The program also monitors trends in overall koala population size, particularly for the two larger populations along the Pacific Highway upgrade alignment – the Broadwater (Sections 8/9) and the Coolgardie- Bagotville (Section 10) key populations. The population of Koalas within Section 10 was the subject of a Population Viability Analysis (PVA). The PVA thoroughly investigated the potential impact of the road on the population, also taking into account implementation of a number of mitigation/management measures. The PVA for the Coolgardie-Bagotville key population indicated that this population is projected to decline significantly over the next 50 years (Kavanagh 2016) unless key threatening processes can be controlled. Monitoring of this population is considered important to help determine whether mitigation actions have been effective and management actions are helping to achieve population recovery, or if not, to provide some context as to why not. The Coolgardie-Bagotville (Section 10) population will be monitored against the PVA predictions, but as the Broadwater (Section 9) population has not had PVA completed, it will be monitored against statistically significant decline at year 15 compared with year 0. Transport for NSW (Transport) has completed the first nine years of the monitoring program which has included; phased resource reduction koala monitoring, crossing structure monitoring, road mortality monitoring, koala revegetation monitoring and nine of the fifteen years of koala population monitoring for the Broadwater and Coolgardie-Bagotville populations. These report can be found on the project website - https://www.pacifichighway.nsw.gov.au The final year of connectivity monitoring included a recommendation to address a corrective action specified if Table 8-4 of the KMP. The recommendation is to extend monitoring of all targeted underpasses in sections 10 and 11 for a further two years. Specific details of the Services required are contained in the Professional Services Contract. Primary contact: Sue Hastings sue.hastings@transport.nsw.gov.au