With so much happening with Brisbane infrastructure it can be hard to keep up. So here’s a ‘Cook’s tour’ of the latest:
The opening this month of Clem 7 is a significant milestone for a lot of reasons. It’s the first piece of the Lord Mayor’s “TransApex” plan, and this 4.8km tunnel is the first Brisbane river crossing for cars since 1986. Almost a quarter of a century!
The media write about the impact on cross-city travel, speeding travel times. But there’s also major benefits to the live-ability for inner city residents and property owners. Clem 7 will take 60,000 cars a day away from surface roads and move them underground. Residents of Kangaroo Point, Woolloongabba and South Brisbane will have less noise and less congestion.
The next piece of the Newman TransApex Pie is the Hale Street Link, a bridge between South Brisbane and Milton that’s due to open in just 2 months time. This one will help free up the traffic bottlenecks that occur in so many near-CBD junctions. Two new cross river crossings will be complete – amazing how things can actually get done!
Airport Link is the third major project, now being run by the state government, and with tunnel boring underway as we write. This 6.7km roadway will start at Bowen Hills, linking the Clem 7 and Inner City Bypass to out near the airport. Residents in suburbs like Clayfield, Windsor and Lutwyche will have direct and immediate benefit when it opens in 2012.
Suburbs like Auchenflower and Milton can often feel like thoroughfares for major traffic routes Milton Road and Coronation Drive. But with the Northern Link soon to burrow from the Western Freeway at Toowong and popping back up at Kelvin Grove to link with the Inner City Bypass, there’ll be some relief for these inner west residents. Northern Link is due to start construction this year and wrap up in 2014.
The fifth and final TransApex project is the East West Link. This tunnel would link the M1 at Buranda with the Western Freeway at Toowong, bypassing the West End peninsula to offer a significant cross-city link. Even the inner-south’s anti-development movement must be able to see the benefits of this one. Officially it appears East West is on hold for some years to come…
Savvy property owners and investors watch infrastructure changes with interest. There’s plenty on this list to keep us all busy for the next few years.
It was a landmark night for Brisbane with the long-awaited Clem 7 tunnel opening to traffic around 11.30pm last night. One of our team was on the spot to be one of the first through and he captured this video.
And no, this isn’t normal driving speed, the trip takes over 4 minutes but we’ve sped things up a little – it is just a tunnel!
Lord Mayor Campbell Newman is wearing a big smile today and he deserves praise. His election promise in 2004 was to get serious about inner Brisbane traffic and his “Transapex” masterplan is about diverting cars around our CBD. The 4.8km Clem 7 tunnel is the first step and in skipping 24 sets of traffic lights its impact on our inner city will be significant.
Watch next for the opening in June of Hale Street Link, now called the Go Between Bridge. It’s about time Brisbane had these sort of solutions.
It might just be us but we’re excited this new inner Brisbane city bus loop is starting earlier than planned. It’s going to run a circuit through West End, South Brisbane, the CBD and into the Valley and Newstead. The big news is you won’t have to wait longer than 5-15 minutes.
The loop will run 24 hours a day on Fridays and Saturdays and BCC now says it’ll kick off in March, coinciding with the opening of the Clem 7 tunnel.
No guessing timetables, no waiting or uncertainty and one, flat fare. We’ve already been to the Translink website to sign up for a Go card (the prepaid way to jump off and on the CityGlider).
Driving past yet another “roadworks ahead” sign on the weekend, one of our team commented on how “messy” Brisbane looks at the moment. Our inner city is littered with orange barriers and yellow-vested-hardhat-wearing lollipop people, the road networks about to be put to the test as school goes back. The great news for property owners and all inner city residents, is the picture you need to paint of Brisbane at the end of 2009.
While it’s officially still touted for next year there’s hope “Clem 7″ will wrap up in late 2009 (that’s this year remember!) The largest infrastructure project ever undertaken in Brisbane this $2.2billion tunnel will link the Gabba and Bowen Hills under the river. Our guess is Brisbanites still haven’t got our heads around the changes it will bring to the accessibility of inner Brisbane. And there’s more to come this year. The Northern Busway’s first stage will be completed, a $200million link from Herston’s Royal Brisbane Hospital to Windsor (with later stages through to Kedron). 2009 will also see an end to much of the construction site that is Buranda. After years of construction, firstly of the Princess Alexandra Hospital and more recently the Clem 7 access points, the concrete dust should settle by year’s end. The new Boggo Road Busway will this year have 13,000 passengers running daily from St Lucia’s Queensland Uni, across the new bridge, down to the PA Hospital and over to link with the South East Busway.
In the city itself the Kurilpa Bridge will link North Quay and South Brisbane for cyclists and pedstrians from September, and the reconstruction of King George Square will wrap up mid year. These are all highly visible projects that do “mess up” the place, but by year’s end we’ll be enjoying a more livable city. With the new Gold Coast desalination plant being commissioned this month (a $1.2billion operation to add 125 million litres of water each day to South East Queensland’s supply) residents and property owners might well look back on 2009 as the “year of infrastructure”, with significant steps forward for Brisbane.
Sounds like a great time to hold an election doesn’t it?!
If your eyes glaze over when you hear the words “infrastructure” and “construction methodology” you might not be keeping up with all the changes to our major roads, and the possible property benefits that could flow on. So here’s the latest:
“Clem 7″ is the $3billion, 4.8km tunnel that will run from the Gabba and Shafston Ave, under the river to Bowen Hills. If the earth’s moving for you in Fortitude Valley at the moment that’s where the boring machines are up to – and next month they’ll be under Brisbane River on their way to a 2010 ribbon-cutting. You’ll then be able to skip 18 sets of lights with the new motorway linking up 5 roads that today carry a combined 400,000 cars a day.
The first pile was driven this week on the “Hale Street Link” (forgettable, politically-correct name still to be decided…) and this 4 lane toll bridge will also open in 2010. Piles are going 30 metres below the river bed in what will be a vehicle, cycle and shaded pedestrian crossing from South Brisbane to Milton.
Following design changes and community cups of tea, approvals are expected this month for “Airport Link”, another of our great tunnels in planning. A 5.3km rabbit hole this one promises to speed cars from Bowen Hills to the airport roundabout in 6 minutes. Burrowing under Lutwyche Road then east under Clayfield, it’s proposed for a 2012 completion.
Keeping up?! The last of the inner city’s big road projects is the “Northern Link”. Hooking up the Western Freeway at Toowong and the Inner City Bypass at Kelvin Grove this is 5km of tunnel that’ll run north-west of Milton Road under Auchenflower and Paddington. Approvals should happen soonish with an opening around 2014.
Driving past yet another “roadworks ahead” sign on the weekend, one of our team commented on how “messy” Brisbane looks at the moment. Our inner city is littered with orange barriers and yellow-vested-hardhat-wearing lollipop people, the road networks about to be put to the test as school goes back. The great news for property owners and all inner city residents, is the picture you need to paint of Brisbane at the end of 2009. 
