Road & Civil Surveys provided large-scale construction surveying support for Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 — a $2.4 billion program delivering 12 kilometres of new light rail from Westmead to Carlingford via the Parramatta CBD and Camellia. The line opened to passengers in December 2024 and includes 16 stops, a maintenance depot, and extensive public domain and urban renewal works.

Delivered by Parramatta Connect — a 50:50 joint venture between CPB Contractors and Downer — the infrastructure works package alone was valued at $840 million, making it one of the largest light rail construction programs in Australia at the time.

Our Role

With more than 10 surveyors embedded across the project at peak, RCS was a core part of the Parramatta Connect delivery team — one of our largest single-project deployments to date.

Our scope covered the full breadth of civil and rail survey requirements across the 12-kilometre corridor: set-out, verification, and as-built surveys for earthworks, drainage, pavements, structures, and service relocations through to track alignment and rail surveys supporting rail installation and geometric conformance.

RCS teams operated across multiple active work fronts simultaneously, including night shift coverage to support works within road closure and possession windows. We also delivered UAV flyovers and scanning services to support progress tracking, volumetric reporting, and spatial documentation.

Driving Value

Parramatta Light Rail Stage 1 cut through the heart of one of Sydney’s busiest urban centres — Church Street, Macquarie Street, and surrounding corridors — while businesses remained open, traffic continued to flow, and pedestrians navigated around live construction on all sides. For the survey team, this meant operating in an environment where work zones shifted constantly, staging changed weekly, and every set-out task had to be right the first time.

With 10+ surveyors on the ground, RCS provided Parramatta Connect with the resourcing depth and flexibility to maintain survey coverage across a fast-moving, multi-front program without bottlenecks. Our team’s familiarity with TfNSW standards and light rail geometric requirements meant survey deliverables were construction-ready and conformance-aligned from day one — reducing hold points, minimising rework, and keeping the program moving through some of the most complex urban construction staging in Sydney.

The scale and duration of this engagement — spanning two years across civil, structural, and rail phases — reflects the trust Parramatta Connect placed in RCS to deliver consistently across the full lifecycle of a flagship infrastructure project.

• Construction surveying and set-out for civil works, drainage, pavements, and structures
• Track alignment and rail geometry surveys
• As-built and verification surveys across the 12km corridor
• Night shift survey coverage during road closures and possessions
• UAV flyovers for progress tracking and volumetric reporting
• Scanning services
• Multi-crew deployment across simultaneous work fronts