The Inner City Bypass is a new transport route linking Hale Street at Paddington with Kingsford Smith Drive at Hamilton and will provide a new route for motorists travelling across Brisbane. The bypass will be 4.5 kilometres long with six lanes between Hale Street and the Campbell Lutwyche Interchange, followed by four lanes for the remainder to Kingsford Smith Drive. Major structures include a new interchange at Normanby, a 'landbridge' over the railway line at Yorks Hollow, and a 400m long tunnel under the RNA Showgrounds. Railway overpasses include a major viaduct at Abbotsford Rd, and several bridges and another tunnel in soft soil at Breakfast Creek.

SAM software was used for design of the precast concrete superstructures for the bypass project including a 'partial prestress' analysis for which SAM was used for the 200 MPa stress increment check Austroads requirement.

The design of the RNA tunnel roof units was of particular interest. A special precast concrete "roof unit" based on a 2m wide open top configuration was developed using SAM. The program enabled quick development and investigation of a variety of roof unit options as part of the design process and a number of loading configurations on the roof units were easily considered. These included soil surcharges, pedestrian live loads, and other loads peculiar to the annual Brisbane RNA Exhibition. Provision was also made for the future development of a building structure. An important design requirement was the load case of a 2hr hydrocarbon fire inside the tunnel. Consultant Maunsell Australia structures manager John Hart said that SAM was particularly useful for this application. "The reduction of tendon strength with temperature which varied for each layer of tendons was easily accounted for using SAM," he said.