Clem 7 Rail tunnel

[#Metro]

In the news today... Clem7 could have been a rail tunnel!
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26769125-952,00.html

The work and planning on it started a long time before Newman even started his mayoral campaign.

We began work on the tunnel under the river from Woolloongabba to the north side of the city coming out near the Royal Brisbane Hospital not long after the Inner City Bypass was completed. I asked council staff to start the significant engineering, traffic forecasting and geo-technical work.

One of the early models considered was to work with Queensland Rail and have this tunnel under the river pick up the heavy rail passenger service at the Exhibition Ground and take the train back to South Brisbane Station. This would have created an inner-city loop for train services. Unfortunately, this innovative approach was rejected by Queensland Rail and Queensland Transport.

What an amazing advantage this would be to our public transport system if it was operational today. The irony is that QR is now trying to create an inner-city link.

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Clem7 tunnel was delayed by Beattie Government, says Jim Soorley

Clem7 tunnel was delayed by Beattie Government, says Jim Soorley
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Jim Soorley

February 25, 2010 12:00am

IN THE next few months Brisbane people will be able to experience our first and one of the country's largest road tunnels.

The Clem7 will enable traffic to bypass the city, under the river, removing many traffic bottlenecks.

Sure it will cost money, but it will save time and fuel. We could say that this tunnel will have a positive effect on climate change in the city.

There are some historical and factual issues around the Clem7 that need to be put on the record as this very important piece of infrastructure comes online.

The first is that Lord Mayor Campbell Newman needs to be congratulated for completing this tunnel, which was planned and developed under my administration.

Newman has been determined to build several tunnels as a way of dealing with congestion. I do not propose to comment on the other projects because I don't have the facts. I do have the facts on the Clem7.

Newman picked up this project with determination and has completed it. In politics, recognition should be given whenever it is due.

In retrospect, it is hard to say with any confidence what would have been the outcome if he had not won the election. I was committed to the construction of the tunnel; my successor Tim Quinn was ambivalent.

The work and planning on it started a long time before Newman even started his mayoral campaign.

We began work on the tunnel under the river from Woolloongabba to the north side of the city coming out near the Royal Brisbane Hospital not long after the Inner City Bypass was completed. I asked council staff to start the significant engineering, traffic forecasting and geo-technical work.

One of the early models considered was to work with Queensland Rail and have this tunnel under the river pick up the heavy rail passenger service at the Exhibition Ground and take the train back to South Brisbane Station. This would have created an inner-city loop for train services. Unfortunately, this innovative approach was rejected by Queensland Rail and Queensland Transport.

What an amazing advantage this would be to our public transport system if it was operational today. The irony is that QR is now trying to create an inner-city link.

As the work got serious we went to the market for a preliminary financial viability assessment. This was done by ABN Amro in partnership with council officers. All indications were positive and the state government was briefed, because the only way this tunnel could be constructed was through the private sector owning and operating it as a toll road.

Brisbane City Council needed state government approval to operate a toll road. In our creative funding options, we had early discussions and early interest from superannuation funds about their investing in this important infrastructure.

We were also looking at giving Brisbane ratepayers an opportunity to invest for the long term. The preliminary assessment was so positive the council moved to a full development plan.

The final location was determined through early geo-technical work, a financial model was developed, and the council was ready to proceed to the next step of going back to the market to select a private company to finance, build, own, and operate the tunnel.

On the morning we announced the project and an hour before we briefed the state government and then the media, the then transport minister was bagging it – the first sign the Beattie government was not interested in the project and would, in fact, go out of its way to stop it.

This is exactly what it did. The state government refused to allow the council to impose a toll on the road. This is the position it maintained until Newman was elected Lord Mayor.

The reality was that the Beattie government held up this project for several years. It was an abuse of power by the state to prevent the council charging a toll – therefore stopping the road.

There are several consequences of the Beattie government's refusal to support the Under the City Toll Road. One is that construction costs nearly doubled because of the delay.

And it is just speculation on my part, but I am sure the risks were greater and therefore the costs higher for the Airport Link, because there was no operating tunnel in Brisbane to compare and assess traffic flows and revenue.

So the state has, and therefore all of us have, paid more for the second tunnel now being built in Brisbane.

I have been out of City Hall for nearly eight years and one can only wonder at the reasons people might or might not do things.

I know the tunnel will work well for Brisbane; congratulations to all who worked so hard on the project for more than 10 years and once again my congratulations to Campbell Newman who took this project from plan to completion.

Jim Soorley is a former lord mayor of Brisbane

[O_128]

This shows the absolute IDIOCY of QR bureaucrats. Why was this not forced upon QR because of this stupid mistake the whole train network will soon be in gridlock.

[#Metro]

Tracklock
Trainlock

Meanings
When the system simply can't handle trains and gets congested.
When signal failures/track faults/SCADA hiccup brings down the services or congests them...

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Soorley blasts Labor underinvestment

Soorley blasts Labor underinvestment
TONY MOORE
February 25, 2010 - 1:06PM

Former Labor Lord Mayor Jim Soorley has blamed his own party's politics for a lack of spending on transport infrastructure over the past decade.

In a newspaper opinion piece published this morning, Mr Soorley blamed Peter Beattie's Labor Government for delaying the North South Bypass Tunnel, which will open next month as the Clem7.

Mr Soorley said Mr Beattie's government feared investing in road infrastructure after the demise of the Goss Government in the 1990s.

"The reason why Queensland was reluctant to look at roads was the Beattie Government thought the r-word [roads] was a dirty word," he told brisbanetimes.com.au.

"It was basically the political situation where Goss was defeated on the basis of a road and the Beattie Government was not prepared to look at roads anywhere."

The Labor Goss Government lost four seats in the Brisbane to Gold Coast corridor in the 1995 election, handing power to Rob Borbidge and the Coalition.

It was widely thought those seats were lost on the basis of a planned new freeway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast that would have swept through koala habitats.

The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council yesterday predicted South-East Queensland motorists would spend an extra 14 minutes in the car and drive a further five kilometres each day, producing an extra 19 million tonnes of emissions a year, by 2040.

ASBEC president Tom Roper blamed reactionary state and federal government treasuries for not investing proactively in public transport, waiting until people developed habits based on driving their private vehicle.

However Mr Soorley this morning said the problem was not backward-thinking treasuries, but politics.

"I think [ABESC's view] is a nonsense view," Mr Soorley said.

"The reality is that the North South Bypass Tunnel stood up and the private sector was ready to go to build it."

Mr Soorley said that fear of serious road investment remained until the "last couple of years" and repeated his claim that the Beattie Government did not invest in infrastructure until it became desperate.

"Let's go back to the recycled water pipe that cost $2 billion," he said.

"In the mid-90s there was a proposal for me and supported by the Esk farmers and the Toowoomba Future Group to take recycled water back to Esk and up to Toowoomba.

"And at that stage it probably needed a subsidy from the state and federal [governments] of about $20 million each and we could have got that project away.

"It ended up costing $2 billion."

Mr Soorley said the situation had improved with Anna Bligh as Premier.

"I think we now have a much more serious attempt to get infrastructure built, but the global financial meltdown means the money is just not around," he said.

Mr Beattie, Queensland's current trade commissioner to the Americas, would not enter into the debate when contacted by brisbanetimes.com.au this afternoon.

"As this matter does not relate to trade and investment for Queensland, it would be inappropriate for me to comment or engage in unseemly public exchanges while I hold this position," he said.

[stephenk]

This shows the absolute IDIOCY of QR bureaucrats. Why was this not forced upon QR because of this stupid mistake the whole train network will soon be in gridlock.

Hold on a second. Have you seen the plans of this once proposed inner city rail loop? Maybe the solution was poor (it sounds like a conflicting move nightmare)? Maybe QR wanted a better solution?

[Jon Bryant]

All well and good Mr Soorley but you want to build the wrong infrastructure.  Plus the original plan for the NSBT was to allow the Riverside Expressway to be pulled down.  Now we have both that will fill with congested traffic and pump out toxic fumes.  Bad infrastructure is going kill this City.

[longboi]

Iiiiiiiiiiit's Lord Mayor Jim! 

[#Metro]

Hold on a second. Have you seen the plans of this once proposed inner city rail loop? Maybe the solution was poor (it sounds like a conflicting move nightmare)? Maybe QR wanted a better solution?

If they had done the ICRCS from the 1970 plan, as was scheduled, between 1985-1995 at the latest we would have had a nice bridge structure into QUT Gardens Point which we could have caught this afternoon if wanted to.
We would have had a direct train to Roma St from Woolloongabba, a subway underneath Queen St mall etc. The price tag would have been substantially smaller too.

Even if the tunnel option for rail was not suitable, the co-construction of say a spur tunnel or even a separate alignment would have saved money because you wouldn't have to get the tunnel borers from Germany and reassemble them again for example. Co-construction saves money, but yet another opportunity wasted...

[O_128]

This shows the absolute IDIOCY of QR bureaucrats. Why was this not forced upon QR because of this stupid mistake the whole train network will soon be in gridlock.

Hold on a second. Have you seen the plans of this once proposed inner city rail loop? Maybe the solution was poor (it sounds like a conflicting move nightmare)? Maybe QR wanted a better solution?

well now they have nothing an most likely wont for 10 years.

[ozbob]

A blast from the not so distant past ...

http://railbotforum.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2222.0

Media Release 2 May 2009

SEQ: Let's keep digging tunnels - rail tunnels

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport commuters has suggested that the tunnel machines being used for the Clem Jones tunnel could be used to build the Inner City Underground rail extensions.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"The tunnel machines being used to bore the Clem Jones tunnel will soon have completed their tasks.

"The diameter of these machines bore is 12. 4 metres. (1) A size which is more than adequate for a standard QR double railway line with overhead electrification.

"The Inner City Inner City Rail Upgrade Project (2) is now urgently needed to provide capacity on the rail network.

"Wouldn't it make sense to use the tunnel machines already in Brisbane? Construction of the rail tunnels could be started this year. Why wait till 2012?"

References:

1. http://www.rivercitymotorway.com.au/content/2039/Construction
2. http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/Home/Projects_and_initiatives/Projects/Inner_city_rail_upgrade/

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[stephenk]

Hold on a second. Have you seen the plans of this once proposed inner city rail loop? Maybe the solution was poor (it sounds like a conflicting move nightmare)? Maybe QR wanted a better solution?

If they had done the ICRCS from the 1970 plan, as was scheduled, between 1985-1995 at the latest we would have had a nice bridge structure into QUT Gardens Point which we could have caught this afternoon if wanted to.
We would have had a direct train to Roma St from Woolloongabba, a subway underneath Queen St mall etc. The price tag would have been substantially smaller too.

Even if the tunnel option for rail was not suitable, the co-construction of say a spur tunnel or even a separate alignment would have saved money because you wouldn't have to get the tunnel borers from Germany and reassemble them again for example. Co-construction saves money, but yet another opportunity wasted...

Again, I need to correct you on a few points. Firstly the ICRCS was a study done in 2008, not 1970. Secondly, if the 1985-1996 bridge/tunnel route that you mention had been built, then we probably wouldn't have had the (much cheaper) inner-city quadruplication between Roma Street and Bowen Hills. Thus if the 1985-1996 bridge/tunnel route had been built we would have the same inner-city rail capacity as at present, and we would still be in need of building extra rail tunnels.

Also, the new rail tunnels are likely to be two single track tunnel. This is generally safer, makes route alignment easier, and requires the excavation and removal of less rock/soil compared to a single double track tunnel (smaller total cutting face). This means that the Clem7's 12m TBM is not required for the new rail tunnels.

[somebody]

Also, the new rail tunnels are likely to be two single track tunnel. This is generally safer, makes route alignment easier, and requires the excavation and removal of less rock/soil compared to a single double track tunnel (smaller total cutting face). This means that the Clem7's 12m TBM is not required for the new rail tunnels.

Sydney's Airport link was made as one dual track tunnel.

[#Metro]

Are the tunnels to and from central and fortitude valley single or double?

[#Metro]

This is generally safer, makes route alignment easier, and requires the excavation and removal of less rock/soil compared to a single double track tunnel (smaller total cutting face).

These reasons seem rather marginal.

Safety:
A train crash in the tunnels from a train jumping or derailing into the path of another would be fatal but extremely rare. Especially given that speeds are likely to be low...

Route alignment: It isn't clear at all that a bigger tunnel would make alignment harder or easier. Unless the two tunnels were to diverge from each other for a section. But why would you do this when its all underground?

Less rock soil: this is minor also given the sheer amount of earth that will be moved.

[ozbob]

One double, two single tunnels.

The corridor through Brisbane's Central Business District carries four tracks through three tunnels, before servicing the six platforms at Central Station (elevation 13 m). From Central the tracks proceed via three tunnels to Brunswick Street (elevation 5.8 m) and then onto Bowen Hills (elevation 8 m) before joining with the western by-pass at Mayne.

http://www.qrnetwork.com.au/Libraries/Information_Packs/Metropolitan_System_Information_Pack_-_Issue_2_-_Sept_2007.sflb?download=true