The construction of a new northbound bridge at the notorious Centenary Bottleneck Motorway over the Brisbane River at Jindalee has been delayed until 2023.
Key points:
The $244 million Centenary Bridge upgrade, in Brisbane’s west, has been delayed to 2023
Work to improve the major bottleneck was due to start this year
Transport Minister Mark Bailey says an alternate bid for the project has to be investigated
The $244 million project involves duplicating the Centenary Bridge and converting the existing bridge to a three-lane southbound route, with a new three-lane bridge traveling northbound.
Transport Minister Mark Bailey said contract issues had complicated the upgrade’s timeline, with delays due to an alternate bid being submitted for the project that required “thorough due diligence” before work could proceed.
“[The delay is] unfortunate but not a huge delay, so we’re getting it built as soon as we possibly can,” Mr Bailey said.
“We’ll certainly see construction start next year.”
He said the bridge upgrade was a critical part of the Centenary Motorway upgrades throughout the west of Brisbane.
“Without the bridge [upgrade] whatever other work you do is still going to grind to a halt with limited lanes across the river,” he said.
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crash zone
The Centenary Motorway currently carries 85,000 vehicles daily, with use expected to balloon out to 152,000 vehicles daily by 2036, as the population of Ipswich, Springfield and western Brisbane booms.
Between 2010 and 2016, the motorway recorded nearly 200 crashes.
The RACQ’s monthly travel speed data reported that in May 2022, Brisbane’s slowest inbound morning traffic was just 25 kilometers per hour on the Centenary Motorway from the Ipswich Motorway to Dandenong Road, adding nearly nine minutes to the morning commute.
The bridge upgrade, jointly funded by the federal and state governments, is one of several road upgrades along the Ipswich corridor, including a recently completed $80 million upgrade to the Sumners Road interchange at Jamboree Heights.
Another $10 million in federal funding has been set aside to investigate more upgrades along the Centenary Motorway through to Ipswich.
Mr Bailey said, to date, the bridge upgrade’s budget remained at $244 million, but department planners were closely monitoring the global inflation of construction materials.
Queensland’s Transport Minister has described Brisbane City Council’s latest vision for a new toll road to relieve congestion in the city’s north-west as a “feeble fantasy” and a “farce”.
Key points:
A study into solutions for Brisbane’s north-west transport corridor has drawn a fierce reaction from the Queensland government
Brisbane City Council conducted the study which recommends two tunnels
Transport Minister Mark Bailey says the state wasn’t consulted on the study
The six-lane tunnel, which would run between Bald Hills and connect with the Airport Link at Kedron, was part of the outcome of a $10 million federally-funded study undertaken over two years by the council.
It found northern Brisbane’s annual congestion and public transport crowding was costing $312 million per year.
That would rise to $538.5m by 2031 and $859m by 2041.
The study found significant community opposition towards any surface road or rail development through the North West Transport Corridor, which had been reserved by the state government since the 1980s.
Mr Bailey says the council had to cancel big projects yet released a study which recommended multi-billion-dollar road network infrastructure builds.(ABC News: Ashleigh Stevenson)
But Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said the major toll road had been costed with “no funding, no consultation with other levels of government, and no idea how to fix congestion.”
He also criticized the council’s decision to cut projects in its June budget, citing the cost of rebuilding from February’s floods, yet unveil billions of dollars in new road infrastructure via the north-west transport study.
“Only a month ago, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner was saying the council was broke and had to cut a lot of projects citywide and now they have a plan to spend $25 billion on new tollways and motorways,” Mr Bailey said.
“It is very clear this tired 20-year-old council is out of touch and out of ideas.
Cr Schrinner has defended the study saying it offered solutions to a growing problem.(ABC News: Alicia Nally)
“Recently, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner cut the North Brisbane Bikeway, cut upgrades to Mowbray Park, and refused to pay a fair share for the Cooper Plains level crossing removal because they are so broke, and yet here he is spending like a drunken sailor with his ridiculous $14 billion toll road plan.
“The state government had no input into the study that was funded by the former Morrison Government despite the state government owning the corridor which shows what a farce this announcement is.
“The immediate focus should be on upgrading services on Gympie Road, which we are already doing through the $72 million Northern Transitway project which we are fully funded.
“The study entirely ignores that project.
“Tell the Lord Mayor he is dreaming.”
‘Doing nothing not an option’
Yet, Cr Schrinner said the council had “done some planning work to assist” in reducing congestion in a burgeoning part of the city.
He also hit back at the state for setting aside land and not using it to improve transport networks.
An artist’s impression shows a Gympie Rd precinct as part of north-west transport corridor improvement.(Supplied: Brisbane City Council)
“We’re concerned about what we see as a black hole for investment for infrastructure from the state government for the north-west suburbs,” Cr Schrinner said.
“That land was intended to be a transport corridor yet it has disappeared from any infrastructure plans and residents are asking what is going to happen in the north-western suburbs. The area is growing and there are no plans from the state government coming out.
“Doing nothing is simply not an option.”
Cr Schrinner also defended suggestions tunnels could fix the area’s woes and said that option would preserve a large tract of bushland which was home to native flora and fauna.
“The corridor that was set aside years ago has really healthy depth of wildlife,” he said.
“And so our investigation identified that any solutions to transport challenges in that part of the world should be underground, not as surface, not using the surface corridor, not bulldozing bushland, not putting threatened species at risk but going underground
“Whether it is train tunnels, motorway tunnels, or a new bus rapid transport system, using the metro buses up Gympie Rd.”
Accusations of council’s ‘secret plan’
The Lord Mayor faced more criticism from the Labor Opposition and state government for allegedly going back on a promise not to build more toll roads in the city.
Both Mr Bailey and Brisbane City Council Labor leader Jared Cassidy said reports showed road options would be tolled.
“Before the 2020 election Adrian Schrinner ducked questions about a northside toll road but now his secret plan has been revealed,” Mr Bailey said.
Cr Cassidy said the LNP council had done a “backflip”.
“It is there in black and white – that the North West motorway will have tolled options considered,” he said.
“This plan is meant to be a missing link for the motorway network – but this council is missing the mark.”
The North West Transport Corridor runs from Everton Park to Carseldine and is owned by the Queensland Government.(Supplied: Brisbane City Council)
Describing the allegations as a “scare campaign”, Cr Schrinner said planning for the north-west had been left “too long”.
“We know there won’t be any roads or infrastructure if it’s left to the Labor party,” he said.
“We’re looking at real solutions. This report identifies multiple options to improve the transport infrastructure in the north west suburbs.”
The report would now go to the state and federal government and Infrastructure Australia for review.
Commuters using the new Cross River Rail network will face “wins and losses” when traveling from 2025, a rail lobbyist says.
Key points:
The new network plan for the $5.4 billion Cross River Rail was released on Tuesday
Transport Minister Mark Bailey says the program is on budget and on schedule
Rail routes through the CBD will be significantly shifted from 2025
Under the new South East Queensland Rail Connect plan released on Tuesday several existing rail lines will be rerouted.
The Gold Coast and Beenleigh lines will bypass Central station and travel directly through the Cross River Rail tunnel to Woolloongabba, Albert, and Roma Street stations before continuing northward to the Sunshine Coast.
The Ferny Grove line will be linked up with the Cleveland line instead of the current Beenleigh line, and the Airport line linked up with the Ipswich line.
‘Sound’ railplan
Rail Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow, who received a briefing on the plan before it was published, said overall the new network would allow significantly more trains to run daily.
“We think [the plan] is the best structuring in terms of how the tunnel is configured with the track layouts north and south of the tunnel,” he told ABC Radio Brisbane.
“It will mean that people in some cases will have to change how they travel.”
The switch of the airport line onto the Ipswich spine will require travelers from the north to change at Eagle Junction or Roma Street to get to Brisbane Airport.
Southern travelers to the airport will also need to change at Roma Street.
The new rail network that will operate from 2025 when Cross River Rail comes online.(Supplied: Queensland Government)
Overall, Mr Dow said, the new network was sound, noting bus connections would also need to change to match the new system in 2025.
Gold Coast concerns
But Gold Coast Major Tom Tate questioned why the new network ended the direct line between his city and the Brisbane Airport.
“Something isn’t right when the two biggest cities in Queensland, with two major international airports, won’t have a direct air train service,” Mr Tate said.
“I accept that the services from the coast to Brisbane city will be faster but having to change for an airport connection is a huge disincentive.
“The whole intent of Cross River Rail is more services, faster services and greater reliability. That seems to not apply to the critical airport direct services.”
core promises
Transport Minister Mark Bailey said there was “a lot of logic” in the new network which made the most use of the new underground tunnels.
He said the new network would significantly improve access to The Gabba for sporting and cultural events while CBD workers would find it more convenient.
A concept image of the Albert Street Cross River Rail station in the center of Brisbane.(Supplied: Queensland Government)
“A lot of people, for instance, get out at South Bank and South Brisbane at the moment and walk across the bridges because the current system is so circuitous,” he said.
“They’ll be able to go directly to Albert Street, get out and go to their place of work within a block or two. It’s going to be fantastic.”
On Tuesday, opposition transport spokesman Steve Minnikin grilled Mr Bailey on the total cost of Cross River Rail during parliamentary estimates, questioning the project’s $5.4 billion price tag.
Mr Minnikin said the “core” cost of Cross River Rail did not include millions for additional projects that were critical to the network’s future success, including $301 million for the Clapham Yard Stabling in Moorooka and $327 million for a new European train control system.
Mr Bailey said his advice was the project was “on budget” and his department was monitoring the impacts of rising inflation on construction materials.
Meanwhile, Brisbane City Council recently launched a review of its bus network ahead of the $1.7 billion Brisbane Metro coming online in late 2024.
The on-demand Metro buses will run regularly along the south-eastern busway and connect with Cross River Rail at Roma Street and Woolloongabba.
Plans for exactly how the Metro will integrate with those two rail stations are still to be determined.
