Premier Statement: Premier gives the green light to Australia's largest road ...

[ozbob]

Premier
The Honourable Anna Bligh
19/05/2008

Premier gives the green light to Australia's largest road project

The State Government has pressed the go button on Australia's largest road infrastructure project to cut congestion and fix one of Brisbane's most notorious bottlenecks.

Today Premier Anna Bligh and Deputy Premier Paul Lucas announced BrisConnections as the preferred bidder to build Airport Link, the next section of the Northern Busway and a new fly-over road to fix the gridlocked airport roundabout.

Airport Link - which is the most complex road and tunnel engineering feat in Queensland's history will cost over $3.4 billion to build - but a landmark finance deal means it will cost tax payers just $47 million.

In total the three projects will cost $4.8 billion, including land costs, of which the State will only contribute $1.5 billion instead of the $2.37 billion which the state had budgeted for.

Ms Bligh said the world-class consortium would build two road tunnels and a new airport connection - the 7km Airport Link mainly underground toll road, the 3km Windsor to Kedron section of the Northern Busway and a 750m fly-over above the airport roundabout.

"In terms of construction costs alone these projects combined are twice the size of the North South Bypass Tunnel. This is a huge step forward for road infrastructure in this city," said the Premier.

"This will bring relief for motorists and bus users by making it much faster and easier for them to get around Brisbane."

Despite the massive scope of the project the winning design was able to make way for Pop's Fig - a much loved fig tree of local heritage significance.

"Pop's Fig is highly valued by the local community and forms a landmark for locals and commuters as they make their way along Lutwyche Road," said the Premier.

"That's why I am pleased to be able to say that the project design preserves Pop's Fig by moving the busway alignment to the west."

The Premier said the three projects would have an unprecedented impact on traffic congestion in Brisbane.

"Airport Link will be a stunning addition to Brisbane's road network and will provide a vital new link between two of South East Queensland's most important economic centres - the airport and the city," she said.

"This world-class infrastructure will provide Queensland with Australia's premier airport-CBD connection and will continue to drive the economic growth that is attracting up to 60,000 people per year to our State.

"The Windsor to Kedron section of the Northern Busway will greatly expand the Brisbane busway network and help pave the way towards a city-wide busway.

"And the Airport Drive connection fly-over will help fix one of Brisbane's biggest bottlenecks and remove the current headache for people trying to reach or leave the airport through the airport roundabout."

The Premier said that the combined roads and busway solution construction of Airport Link and the Northern Busway (Windsor to Kedron) will start later this year and all three roads will be completed mid 2012 - six months earlier than originally planned.

The combined projects will cost more than $4 billion to design and construct. Airport Link will cost $3.4 billion, the Windsor to Kedron busway section $444 million and the Airport Drive fly-over $272 million.

"This is a fantastic outcome for the Queensland tax-payer on Airport Link," Ms Bligh said.

"In a very difficult national and international financial climate and amid rising construction costs, we have managed to keep the Queensland Government contribution to below what we had budgeted for."

"Based on current interest rates, we will now be contributing less than $50 million for Airport Link instead of the budgeted $850 million which will free up some money for other vital infrastructure."

Ms Bligh said the main features of the winning bid were:

- Airport Link

    * longest road tunnel in Australia at 6.7km

    * competitive toll of $4.30 north-south and $3.20 east-west (in 2008 dollars).

    * bypasses up to 16 traffic lights

    * trips between Bowen Hills and airport roundabout in as little as six minutes

- Northern Busway

    * a 3km two-lane, two way busway, including 1.5km underground between Constitution Road, Windsor and Sadlier Street, Kedron

    * modern new busway stations at Lutwyche and Kedron

    * halve average travel time between Kedron and Royal Brisbane Hospital

- Airport Drive fly-over

    * 750m section of fly-over to link the East-West Arterial and Airport Drive which bypasses roundabout and traffic lights

    * Existing roundabout replaced by highly efficient signalised intersection

    * Combined with Airport Link, will deliver motorists from the international terminal to Bowen Hills in as little as 10 minutes and bypassing 18 sets of lights

    * Upgrade of the East-West Arterial to three lanes each way.

The bid includes a number of significant changes which Ms Bligh said were exciting innovations to the original designs.

Key project changes are:

- Massive reduction in impacts on Kedron State High School by relocating Airport Link underground; $5.5m to mitigate impacts on Kedron High and Wooloowin State School

- Partial burying of two of Airport Link's three ventilation stations, including at Clayfield, to dramatically reduce noise and visual impacts

- Substantially improve traffic capacity at Kedron Brook intersection by relocating surface road and overhead road bridges underground

- Excellent pedestrian and cycle access, underground location and smart design of Lutwyche Busway Station.

Deputy Premier and Infrastructure and Planning Minister Paul Lucas said another change was the acquisition of extra properties for Airport Link and Northern Busway.

"This is a project Brisbane can be proud of. But it will have an impact," Mr Lucas said.

"Unfortunately because of the improved road connections included in the designs, we cannot do without some extra properties," he said.

"We will have to resume an extra 35 properties and we will work closely with these owners to acquire their properties in the most sensitive way possible.

"But there are also owners of six surface properties that thought they would be affected and will not be now because of the design changes."

The BrisConnections consortium includes Macquarie Capital Group, Thiess and John Holland. They employed hundreds of staff and invested millions of dollars on their bid as did the two unsuccessful bidders.

"It was a very competitive process and I want to thank all three groups for the amount of expertise and sheer hard work they brought to these bids," said Mr Lucas.

Airport Link is mainly underground and will comprise dual tunnels approximately six kilometres in length.

It will link major and local roads at Bowen Hills with the northern arterials of Gympie Road and Stafford Road at Kedron and Sandgate Road and the East-West Arterial in the north-east.

The Northern Busway will ultimately connect the Inner Northern Busway at Herston to Bracken Ridge via Windsor, Lutwyche, Kedron, Chermside and Aspley.

The Windsor to Kedron section of the busway is being delivered with Airport Link to save on build costs and minimise construction impacts.

In what will be Australia's largest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project, BrisConnections will be asked to finance, design, construct, commission, operate and maintain Airport Link underground toll road.

The same contractor will also design and build the Windsor to Kedron section of the State-funded Northern Busway and the airport fly-over, before handing it back to the State to operate and maintain.

BrisConnections winning designs will be available for public viewing throughout May and June at the Airport Link and Northern Busway (Windsor to Kedron) Visitors' Centre at 109 Gympie Road, Kedron, which is scheduled to open on 22 May," Mr Lucas said.

"People will be given a chance to have their say on these changes," Mr Lucas said.

"They will have up to four weeks to make submissions about the changes and I can guarantee that all submissions will be carefully considered."

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[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

$4.30 toll for Airport Link

$4.30 toll for Airport Link
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Rosemary Odgers

May 19, 2008 10:03am

USERS of Australia's longest road tunnel will pay a toll of $4.30 to go from Kedron to the airport roundabout when the Airport Link tunnel opens in 2012.

Premier Anna Bligh today announced that the preferred bidder for the 6.7 tunnel is Bris Connections, which will also build the  next section of the Northern Busway and a new flyover road to fix the gridlocked airport roundabout.


Airport link will cost over $3.4b to build, but a landmark finance deal means it will cost taxpayers only $47m.

The total cost of the Airport Link, the next section of the Northern Busway and the the new flyover road will be $4.8b, of which the state will contribute $1.5b instead of the $2.37b it had budgeted for.

Airport link will be the longest road tunnel in Australia, cutting trips between Bowen Hills and the Airport roundabout to as little as six minutes.

Users will pay a $4.30 toll (in 2008 dollars).

Six properties which were in line to be resumed will no longer be needed but 35 new properties will now be affected through partial or full resumptions including 25 residential properties.

Residents are learning of the resumptions today.

Another 238 properties will be paid compensation because the tunnel runs underneath them.

The Bris Connections consortium includes Macquarie Capital Group, Thiess, and John Holland.

My blog comment:

More madness. We have a railway line to the airport that if  high frequency round the clock services were introduced, and brought back into the normal translink zones and fares it would be the method of choice and utilised properly for every ones benefit.

Further expensive monuments to the auto mobile would not be needed.  The present roads would be more than adequate.

Who will afford the toll and petrol come the meltdown?

[mrciclismo]

Yes Ozbob,

I think the Premier has not been informed of the increase in world oil prices

She says we should be proud,....what a load of bollocks

[mufreight]

Something to ask the Premier, the Minister or your local member about.
The billion dollar saving for the state on this project could and should be used to put the new tunnel through the Little Liverpool Range and electrify to Gatton and build the third track from Darra to Ipswich.
A project that would have greater benefits for more people, save more fuel and lower greenhouse emissions.

[dwb]

Gatton?! As if that would have greater benefits for more people, what a joke!

If you think about it, the way the PPP is structured, with busway ownership being in state hands, then they've insured themselves against rising oil prices as they will have only spent something like $50mil on the road tunnel!

[mufreight]

To DWB, a different perspective, effectively yes it is fact, a new tunnel through the Little Liverpool range with wire to Gatton and the extra track from Darra to Ipswich would have a greater effect.
More pass services on the Ipswich line would mean more cars off the Ipswich Motorway and Centenary Highway and Milton Road which also affects Moggil Road and those residents from Kenmore, Moggil, Brookfield etc, while reducing the cost of operation of coal trains off the downs and aslo enable minimising the curfew on freight operation (coal) while allowing the extra train paths that are now needed to allow grain to be railed instead on it being moved by road as it is at the present time.
Often it is not always the immediate direct effect that counts but all the side benefits.
The argument is not that the airport tunnel should not be built but that the government funds that they have saved should be spent on other infrastructure projects that will advantage commuters.

[ozbob]

The question that needs to be asked about the new airport link extravaganza is what guarantees have been given by government concerning the airport railway line to the developers?

Have they sold out on any possibility of bringing the airport railway line into frequent, accessible, affordable services for their (Government) short term political gain?

[dwb]

Mufreight: yes I see your points, I was thinking solely in terms of passenger services and not freight. Although I still believe that you could get a large proportion of those benefits you speak about without going all the way out to Gatton, at least for Ipswich line passengers.

Ozbob: That is an excellent question, perhaps we should be submitting a FOI request! It would be terrible (and I'm hoping unlikely) that the airport link has limitations on the operation of Airtrain... now the interrelationship of those two contracts might be quite complicated!!! Obviously the Govt couldn't put something in the Airport link contract guaranteeing that Airtrain will maintain high prices, although doesn't this line already have a 15min headway during its entire operating day (which is in fact shorter than QR operating hours finishing at something like 7-8pm at night!)

Also, since its inception, their has been talk of stations at both Toombul and DFO, on that line, which presumably could only charge standard Translink fares for the applicable zone... if Translink was keen they could then seek permission from Brisbane Airport Corp and Transfield (ie Airtrain) to run a bus connection from either of these stations... awkward, but a way around the Airtrain price for those passengers willing to try - kind of like not taking the Heathrow express but the Picadilly line (or whichever one it is!)

[mufreight]

DWB an estimated number of people from the Gatton area commuting east last November was in excess of 1100 people per day and estimated as using some 900 vehicles, how many more do the commute from the areas east of the range and west of Rosewood was not counted but based upon the spread of residential development a guestimate would be at least in the thousand + so a reasonable rail commuter service would have the potential of taking as least 1500 motor vehicles per day off the Ipswich Motorway, the ability to increase the operation frequency east of Ipswich to a 15 minute headway with an hourly express service would attract more motoring commuters off the motorway, if any proof of what is possible the Perth Mandurah line which has already exceeded estimate passanger numbers by better than 40% in it's first year of operation.
Provide a service and people will use it, rail has two major advantages, actual travel time and actual cost, advantages that grow as the roads become more congested and the price of fuel increases.