Posted by admin on 30 March 2010
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.
The TransApex plan for Brisbane
Tags: Airport Link Brisbane, Auchenflower Brisbane, Bowen Hills Brisbane, Buranda Brisbane, Clem 7 Brisbane, Coronation Drive Brisbane, Hale Street Link Brisbane, Inner City Bypass Brisbane, Kangaroo Point Brisbane, Kelvin Grove Brisbane, M1 Brisbane, Milton Brisbane, Milton Road Brisbane, Northern Link Brisbane, Toowong Brisbane, Transapex Brisbane, Western Freeway Brisbane, Woolloongabba Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's future & new infrastructure, Woolloongabba, trends in Brisbane property | 2 Comments »
Posted by admin on 18 February 2010
Artist's impression of the Manning Street project
It’s a long time in the planning but the redevelopment of Milton Rail and the new construction above and adjacent to the station may be nearer to happening.
The latest FKP Property Group application for a 31-storey building was approved by Brisbane City Council last week. We wrote 3 years ago about their ambitious plan to build a mammoth tower over the railway line. Something like this does take time but the economic meltdown hasn’t helped.
According to Westside News the original proposal for two towers of mixed residential and commercial space was altered during this latest application process to just one tower to fit the Milton Local Area Plan more closely.
The proposal includes a significant upgrade to the Station, including new retail spaces.
The building, to be imaginatively called “The Milton”, will house over 300 one and two bedroom apartments with commercial offices on the lower floors.
Meantime Kozmic Developments has also received Council approval for their 21 Manning Street tower, a 127 apartment project right behind Park Road. This will be a great example of land re-use in inner Brisbane, with relatively modern apartments to be bulldozed to make way for the project.
Exciting times for Milton!
Tags: Brisbane City Council, FKP Property, Kozmic Developments, Manning Street Milton, Milton Brisbane, Park Road Milton Brisbane, The Milton Apartments
Posted in Brisbane's sales market | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 16 July 2009
a busy construction site... the Hale Street Link underway today
The bridge over the Brisbane River (from Milton to South Brisbane) will open in 2010 and Council has decided it’s time for us to give it a name. Submissions close on the 3rd of August and there has already been over 560 suggestions including the “River City”, “Riverfestival” and even the “Wally Lewis” Bridge. To make your own suggestions (or to laugh at some of the odd ones), log on to www.namethatbridge.com
Tags: Brisbane City Council, Brisbane River, Hale Street Link Brisbane, Milton Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's future & new infrastructure, South Brisbane and South Bank | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 10 January 2007
“Tens of thousands of new homes will be forced upon traffic-choked suburbs under a State Government plan that councils have condemned as being unrealistic and shrouded in secrecy.”
While this article ran in the Sydney Morning Herald this week it might soon be a Courier Mail headline. Brisbane City Council’s leaders face enormous pressure throughout 2007 to find room to house our surging population. And some unpopular decisions have to be made, or our state government may need to step in to ensure its own regional plan can be delivered.
The NSW govt is asking Bankstown for example to find room for 26,000 more homes and they say these will need to be built entirely in the place of existing ones. Residents are in for some changes: Woollahra has to plan for 2,800 new homes while they actually built just two in the past year!
Unlike our southern cousins we don’t have the scattering of dozens of local authorities since our 1925 amalgamation into the BCC ’super-council’. But while the planning here is hopefully more organised it won’t be any more readily accepted by inner-Brisbanites, who generally want both their leafy 600m2 and the economic prosperity that comes with being this nation’s fastest growing capital city. Projects like the pending FKP development over Milton rail station will test Council’s commitment to growth – they’re asking for 30 storeys where there’s not been more than 10 outside the CBD or Kangaroo Point before now. It’ll have 192 apartments, a 120 room hotel and offices and shops.
BCC’s Urban Renewal division have started community consultation and are preparing a plan for a large part of Milton, ultimately trying to find room for greater density. Albion has recently had similar treatment and watch for more “strategic planning” across inner Brisbane this year. More development applications will try Council on for size – Toowong’s ABC and Woolworths sites might well be contentious hotspots in 2007.
BCC elections roll around again in just over 12 months so perhaps a state govt directive or two would be a welcome intervention for some of our city pollies!
Tags: Albion Brisbane, Brisbane City Council, Brisbane housing supply, Kangaroo Point Brisbane, Milton Brisbane, population growth Brisbane, Toowong Brisbane, urban renewal Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's future & new infrastructure | 1 Comment »
