Floods force rail project rethink

[colinw]

ABC News: Floods force rail project rethink

Last month's floods have prompted a redesign of the Surat Basin rail project in southern and central Queensland.

Construction on the line, linking Toowoomba and the Gladstone Port, is scheduled to start next year.

Everald Compton, from infrastructure company ATEC, says flooding along the Dawson River has prompted a rethink about how the line should be built.

"We'd designed the railway for a one-in-100-year event," he said.

"The floods in the Dawson River were more than a one-in-100-year event.

"It means you've got to with the bridges, you've got to build the foundations of them a long way back from the banks now because the floods are going to wash the banks away."

US-based Energy and Minerals Group has bought a majority stake in ATEC and the company says it now has the funds to begin construction next year.