One of the challenges of building in Brisbane’s inner-city suburbs is that there’s not a lot of room to spread out. New buildings almost always cover their complete site area so until the ground floor is completed (and earthworks and basements can take months) builders are forced to take over footpaths and sometimes even whole lanes of their adjoining streets.
There’s currently a number of local construction sites with orange-vested people out the front. Slowing us down, directing us around and turning us back. Merivale Street is one of South Brisbane’s busiest roads, as the east-bound off-ramp from the Go Between Bridge. So the workers on “Station 16″ apartments (pictured) have a lot of traffic to contend with and 2 lanes get pushed back to 1. It’s annoying for everyone but impossible to avoid.
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.
Last night, the Lord Mayor, Campbell Newman spoke to Business South Bank members at West End’s Greek Club. Have a listen to his very positive view point on the future of Brisbane and its expected population growth rates. He briefly addresses urban sprawl and the planning process currently underway for developing West End including an update on the City Glider, Hale Street (Go Between) Bridge and future City Cat stops.
One of the challenges of building in Brisbane’s inner-city suburbs is that there’s not a lot of room to spread out. New buildings almost always cover their complete site area so until the ground floor is completed (and earthworks and basements can take months) builders are forced to take over footpaths and sometimes even whole lanes of their adjoining streets.
