Aecom will carry out  the detailed design of the Mackay Ring Road Stage 1, which is part of a US$6.5 billion scheme to improve the Bruce Highway.

Mackay Ring Road Stage 1 covers 11.3km of two-lane rural highway bypass, with 14 bridges including major waterway crossings of the Pioneer River and the Fursden Creek floodplain.

The project will now move onto the detailed design phase, which is expected to take two years to finalise. Construction for Stage 1 is expected to begin in 2017 and take about two and a half years to complete, weather permitting.