Article: Ferry terminals delayed by spiralling cost

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Ferry terminals delayed by spiralling cost

Ferry terminals delayed by spiralling cost
February 19, 2013 - 12:10PM Tony Moore

Brisbane City will now not get brand new river ferry terminals until late 2015 after an international design competition, run by the state and federal governments, added $20 million to the cost.

Originally, Brisbane's new riverside CityCat terminals were to be completed by 2014 under the design competition concept.

The federal government reluctantly agreed just before Christmas not to go ahead with the design chosen under the competition, which ended up costing $90 million.

The federal and state governments would only put in $70 million together, according to Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk.
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On Tuesday morning, Cr Quirk announced Brisbane City Council would go ahead only with a scaled-back version of Cox Rayner's winning design on seven ferry terminals.

Temporary "fix" jobs are in place at these terminals, while the West End terminal has already been re-built by Brisbane City Council.

The international design competition for Brisbane's City Cat terminals was announced by then-premier Anna Bligh and federal Treasurer Wayne Swan on April 30, 2011.

Three days later, in a letter on May 3, 2011, Cr Quirk privately expressed his concerns to Ms Bligh that the international design competition would result "in the very real risk that the terminal reconstruction process will be delayed".

On May 9, 2011, Ms Bligh wrote back to Cr Quirk saying that she wanted the design to deliver "value for money".

On Tuesday, Cr Quirk said he was disappointed that the end result was a delay of 12 months and a design that cost $20 million more than was allocated.

"That in the fullness of time showed it was going to cost around $90 million, an extra $20 million over and above what was originally proposed," he said.

Cr Quirk said Brisbane City Council also believed the original design - with a large floating waiting area - would not offer the best flood protection.

"So the design competition showed a $90 million cost, plus only a 1:100 year flood resilience," he said.

Brisbane City Council would not include the large floating "waiting areas" from the original design and change the engineering concepts with the firm, Cox Rayner, to achieve a better outcome.

The new design - still to be finalised - will eventually go ahead at the University of Queensland (St Lucia), Regatta (Toowong), North Quay (CBD), QUT (CBD) and Sydney Street (New Farm) CityCat stops, plus the ferry stops at Holman Street (Kangaroo Point) and Maritime Museum (South Brisbane).

Work is expected to start in early 2015.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/ferry-terminals-delayed-by-spiralling-cost-20130219-2eopk.html

[somebody]

What is the need to again rebuild these ferry terminals which have mostly just been rebuilt after the 2011 flood?

[Golliwog]

What is the need to again rebuild these ferry terminals which have mostly just been rebuilt after the 2011 flood?

Not entirely sure, I know that a number of the replacements after 2011 were meant to be temporary just to get services running again.

[#Metro]

I hope they rebuild uq closer to the bus turnaround.

[Golliwog]

I hope they rebuild uq closer to the bus turnaround.

I don't know what the end decision was/is/if it has been made, but I know this was being considered. At one point there were people conducting community consultation at UQ Lakes as to what users thought about rebuilding the city cat terminal pretty much where the cross river ferry terminal used to be.

[nathandavid88]

Personally, I'd like to see the area around the North Quay stop done up rather than just putting a new terminal out in the water.

That stop is the closest one to the Queen Street Mall, the busiest area of the city and one of the main tourist drawcards, but it's more or less an afterthought. It's hidden away in a rather secluded area under the REx that really isn't the easiest to get to, particularly for PWDs or people not good with steps. People should really be flocking to the terminal from the Queen Street Mall, but I wonder how many people actually know that there's even a ferry terminal there!