Line Marking Tullamarine VIC

A Tullamarine freight terminal had an access road that connected to the airside hardstand. We marked the access road during a night window. At 1:30am a pushback tug crossed our working zone — it was repositioning aircraft on the adjacent hardstand and used the access road as part of its circuit. The tug's solid rubber tyres ran through wet thermoplastic that had been applied about 20 minutes earlier, and tracked the thermoplastic for approximately 40 metres across the adjacent hardstand.

We stopped the session, cleaned up the tracked thermoplastic from the hardstand immediately, and rescheduled the unmarked access road sections. The tracked thermoplastic on the hardstand took three hours to clean with solvents before it set fully. The tug operator hadn't been notified of our works — the freight terminal's operations controller knew we were there, but the ground support equipment (GSE) scheduling is managed separately by the airport ground handler.

For any Tullamarine aviation-adjacent facility where GSE or aircraft movement vehicles access the same hardstand or road network as our work zone, the GSE scheduler — not just the facility manager — needs to be a TMP communication recipient. We identify every aircraft and vehicle movement type that could cross our work zone and confirm with each relevant controller before mobilising.

Tullamarine is Melbourne Airport's industrial suburb — freight terminals, cargo operators, and the aviation support businesses that run around-the-clock adjacent to the airport. VicRoads approved. GSE movement co-ordination is standard in every Tullamarine airside-adjacent TMP.