Article: Rebuilding CityCat terminals could take 18 months

[ozbob]

Rebuilding CityCat terminals could take 18 months
Daniel Hurst
January 20, 2011 - 3:34PM

Three-quarters of Brisbane's 24 CityCat and CityFerry terminals should be salvageable, but six of them will need to be completely rebuilt.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, who went on a tour along the river to inspect damage today, said Brisbane City Council was aiming to have CityCat services running again in some form within 90 days.

But he it would take more than a year to rebuild some ferry terminals and the total damage bill would fall somewhere between $70 million and $100 million.

Cr Newman said downstream terminals, east of Brisbane's CBD, had escaped the worst of the damage and services could resume to these places soonest.

Half of Brisbane's 24 CityCat and CityFerry terminals had suffered only minor damage and the paintwork or cabling issues could be fixed relatively quickly, he said.

A quarter of the terminals, or about six, had significant damage but would probably be able to be salvaged, Cr Newman said.

But he said a further six terminals, including the Sydney Street stop at New Farm and the Regatta terminal, were complete write-offs, he said.

Cr Newman said the good news was that the Riverside terminal, the "lynchpin of the system" and the central stop for people headed to the Brisbane CBD, was in a good state.

He said the council would let a contract over the next couple of days to begin clean-up work.

Cr Newman said the surging Brisbane River had inflicted a lot of damage, with the University of Queensland terminal gangway ending up near the West End rowing club.

"A lot of our components have been strewn around the Brisbane River," he said.

"To rebuild a ferry terminal fully ... is going to be an 18-month proposition."

The CityCat and CityFerry vessels themselves have generally been unaffected.

While the services remain out of operation, passengers have been urged to use bus services that connect to the river terminals. A number of additional services have been provided. l

Details can be found on the Translink website.

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

List: CityCat, CityFerry terminal damage

List: CityCat, CityFerry terminal damage
January 20, 2011 - 5:16PM

Following is a list of the condition of CityCat and CityFerry terminals, based on an initial assessment.

Brisbane City Council says comprehensive checks will be undertaken in the coming weeks.

Rebuilding the worst-affected terminals could take up to 18 months, Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said.

Minor works required

    * Bretts Wharf
    * Apollo Rd
    * Teneriffe
    * Bulimba
    * Hawthorne
    * New Farm Park
    * Mowbray Park
    * Dockside
    * Riverside
    * Guyatt Park

Moderate works required

    * Norman Park
    * Eagle St (CityFerry)
    * Thornton St
    * River Plaza
    * South Bank 3
    * South Bank 1 & 2

Major works required

    * Sydney St
    * Holman St
    * QUT
    * North Quay
    * Regatta
    * West End
    * St Lucia/UQ

Source: Brisbane City Council

[ozbob]

From the ABC News click here!

Some Brisbane ferries could be running by April

Some Brisbane ferries could be running by April

By Emma Pollard

Downstream ferry services could start earlier because the terminals were not as badly damaged as those upstream.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman says he is aiming to have a ferry service running again by April.

He says downstream services could start earlier because the terminals were not as badly damaged as those upstream.

"We're going to try to get an operation going within 90 days to serve the commuters of this city," he said.

"But to rebuild a ferry terminal properly, for example one that's been written off, is going to be an 18 month proposition."

[somebody]

I wasn't expecting it to take so long to rebuild these.  At least the downstream reaches should be able to get a service back soon.

[#Metro]

Not all the ferry terminals need to be operational for them to run a ferry service. The service can be staged and run express past the damaged ones. Hopefully this can be an opportunity to re-build the write-off ones, I suspect the West End one would be one of those.

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

Half Brisbane's CityCats a write-off after Queensland flood crisis

Half Brisbane's CityCats a write-off after Queensland flood crisis

   * John McCarthy, Andrew MacDonald and Anna Caldwell
   * From: The Courier-Mail
   * January 21, 2011 12:00AM

BRISBANE'S CityCat ferry service could take up to 18 months to be fully operational again after an assessment found repairing the terminals alone would set back ratepayers as much as $100 million.

The revelation came as 32 Navy divers began scouring the Brisbane River for submerged debris.

The delay in repairing the CityCats will add even more pressure to the public transport system next week when thousands of holidaying workers return to the CBD and students start back at school.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said some of the ferry terminals were so extensively damaged by flood debris they might be out of commission until mid-2012, although the council was trying to get a makeshift service ready within three months.

"Half of the system can get back in operation fairly quickly. The other half is a write-off," Cr Newman said.

The worst affected terminals were the Regatta and Sydney Street, New Farm, facilities.

"Downstream from the CBD the terminals are in pretty good shape and that may allow us to progressively get the downstream operations going first," Cr Newman said.

"The Riverside terminal, which is the lynch pin, is also in pretty good shape."

Royal Australian Navy divers Luke Thomas and Kaine Duncan were among 32 clearance divers from a special Maritime Task Group charged with scouting for debris around pylons supporting 16 bridges from the Port of Brisbane to the Moggill Ferry.

They began with the Gateway and Leo Hielscher bridges and parts of the Captain Cook Bridge yesterday, but their Commander Peter Tedman said it could take a month before every pylon was given the all-clear.

"We're talking about ship debris, pontoons, water tanks, bits of metal, anything that might have washed down the river during the flood," he said.

"What we want to make sure is that some of that hasn't then collected a lot of other rubbish, putting more pressure on the bridges."

He said the river would probably remain off-limits to recreational craft and ferries until his team deemed it safe.

Brisbane residents meanwhile face more havoc, with a king tide at 11am today expected to create further flooding in low-lying areas of Albion, Windsor and Stones Corner.

"If there is heavy rain (during the night) and into (this) morning people should be concerned," Cr Newman said.

It's the terminals that are a write off, not the CityCats themselves, they were moved to safe water prior to the flood rise in the river.

[ozbob]

Time to bring forward frequency improvements on rail and set up more feeder buses.

Folks adding to the road chaos is not the solution.  Let's get cracking.

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

All hands on deck for CityCat staff

All hands on deck for CityCat staff
Cameron Atfield
January 21, 2011 - 6:14AM

Their regular jobs may have been made temporarily redundant, but Brisbane Ferries employees have been keeping busy after last week's devastating floods.

Brisbane's CityCat and ferry network is expected to be out of action for at least three months, while it could take up to 18 months for all the damaged or destroyed terminals to be fully restored.

Contractor TransdevTSL, which operates the ferry network on behalf of Brisbane City Council, has been forced to redeploy staff whose normal jobs had been affected.

TransdevTSL Brisbane Ferries general manager James Hall said alternative duties had been found for their 180 staff members.

"The permanent staff are all redeployed and assisting in the clean-up and recovery of the terminals and the offices," he said.

"They've got a watch over many of the vessels for security reasons and the vessels have to be fired up regularly, otherwise the batteries all run out.

"We got washed out in terms of our Riverside office and our Hawthorne office, so obviously there's big clean-up jobs there and then of course the staff are working with our maintenance people to actually clean all the terminals."

However Mr Hall said casual workers, who were largely involved in on-deck duties, had not been retained while the services had ceased.

"They really have to wait until the services are back on [before they work again]," he said.

"But we have been able to give some of them work cleaning up the river with some contracting companies and we're also talking to Brisbane City Council about whether they can use them in other areas."

Mr Hall praised his staff for their actions during potentially dangerous conditions last week.

"I think they did a magnificent job last week saving all the vessels. We took 10 CityCats down to Manly and secured others at Rivergate and Bulimba and basically, of 26 vessels, 25 got through in perfect condition," he said.

"One sustained some minor damage, but that will be fixed by [today].

"We were fighting the flood and everyone's emotion was on saving the assets, then suddenly the flood's over and you go into recovery mode and face the challenge of fixing everything up."