Australia Road Forum
This week’s announcement of appointments to the Infrastructure Australia advisory council has prompted a fresh round of speculation about the role of the private sector in delivering new roads for the Federal Government.
According to The Australian, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese played a straight bat this week to questions about the inevitability of more toll roads, saying financing options would be examined as part of feasibility studies.
The Herald Sun’s take was that motorists would inevitably be stung for higher tolls as the Government increasingly turned to the private sector to deliver its new roads. But the Rudd Government wouldn’t extend tolls beyond main city arteries to interstate highways, the paper added.
The Fin Review suggested the Government would be prepared to sacrifice commercial returns on its $20 billion infrastructure fund to deliver social benefits. And in a separate story, the paper said the appointment of AIG boss Heather Ridoutt to the IA Council had fuelled tensions among employer groups jostling for the ear of the Government.
Today’s Fin Review also reported concerns about the impact of the skills shortage on the delivery of the Government’s infrastructure promises.
In other news, the Age reported this week on calls by a State Government MP for a tunnel linking the Eastern Freeway with the Western Ring Road as an alternative to the east-west route proposed in the Eddington study.
Today’s Herald Sun reported the Brumby Government might be prepared to compromise on its controversial city clearway changes in a bid to address the concerns of angry traders.
And in Brisbane, the Courier Mail reported this week that Brisbane City Council had commissioned planning for a tunnel linking the Western Freeway with the Inner City Bypass.
The Queensland Government has this week announced BrisConnections as the preferred bidder to build Brisbane’s new Airport Link, the next section of the Northern Busway, and a new fly-over road to fix the gridlocked airport roundabout.
Premier Anna Bligh said the world-class consortium (comprising Thiess, John Holland, Macquarie Capital Group, Arup and PB) would build two road tunnels and a new airport connection — the 7km Airport Link mainly underground toll road, the 3km Windsor to Kedron section of the State-funded Northern Busway, and a 750m fly-over above the airport roundabout.
Airport Link – touted as the most complex road and tunnel engineering feat in Queensland’s history - will cost over $3.4 billion to build. But according to the Government, taxpayers will only foot $47 million of the bill.
In total the three projects will cost $4.8 billion, including land costs, of which the State will contribute $1.5 billion.
Premier Bligh said Airport Link and the Northern Busway (Windsor to Kedron) will start later this year and all three roads will be completed mid 2012 – six months earlier than originally planned.
Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, Anthony Albanese, this week announced the full make-up of the advisory council for Infrastructure Australia, the new national body tasked with developing a blueprint for fixing and modernising the nation's transport, water, energy and communications infrastructure.
The members of the Council are:
Click here for the council members’ biographies.
The ARF has welcomed last week’s Federal Budget commitment of $20 billion to the Building Australia Fund.
ARF is also pleased to see that the Rudd Government is committed to the $22.3 billion AusLink 2 funding package announced in the 2007 Budget.
ARF President, Ray Fisher, says it’s now critical that the right decisions are made about how the money is spent.
“The immediate challenge for Infrastructure Australia (IA) is to ensure that the investment opportunities identified for funding are those that generate optimum economic benefits for Australia,” he says.
“At the same time, the road industry looks to IA to commit to a steady pipeline of work that will provide surety for the industry to forward plan and deliver the necessary resources to undertake these projects.
“Such a pipeline will be an important trigger for private and public investment in the skills that we so desperately need in this country.
“Any investment in infrastructure should go hand in hand with a serious commitment to investing in the whole range of skills to do with roads and road transport. This includes smart information technology, skilling for drivers and operators, and a more skilled and capable engineering industry.
“ARF is committed to working closely with the Rudd Government, its agencies and various state and local counterparts, to make the most of this wonderful opportunity to provide a land infrastructure network that will secure our future economic and social needs.”
Fulton Hogan and York Civil were this week announced as the successful tenderers for the main construction contract for Adelaide’s $564 million Northern Expressway project.
The 23-km, four lane, two-way road will link the Sturt Highway at the Gawler Bypass with Port Wakefield Road, north of Waterloo Corner Road. It forms part of the Northern Expressway project which is a joint initiative of the Australian and South Australian Governments under the AusLink program.
Following community consultation, the project has been expanded to include a fly-over interchange with Port Wakefield Road, a new interchange at Penfield and a 23-km bike lane.
Work will begin in August.
Construction joint venture partners Fulton Hogan and York Civil will be supported by a design consultancy joint venture comprising Maunsell Australia, SMEC Australia, and Dare Sutton Clarke.
The Federal Government brought forward $60 million in last week’s Budget to make sure the project is completed by 2010.
Melbourne’s $2.5 billion EastLink motorway is scheduled to open to traffic on Sunday 29 June, on budget and five months ahead of schedule.
The 39-kilometre motorway, incorporating 17 interchanges and 88 bridges, links the Eastern Freeway in Mitcham with the Frankston Freeway in Melbourne's south-east.
It is Victoria’s second fully electronic tollway, and rates as one of the largest PPPs ever undertaken in Australia.
ConnectEast Managing Director, John Gardiner, says the opening of EastLink (and the untolled Ringwood Bypass) five months early demonstrates the capacity of the private sector to accelerate the delivery of massive projects.
ConnectEast has announced a four-week toll-free period to mark the opening.
Vehicle crash rates could more than halve with targeted investment in dangerous road sections, according to the latest Australian Road Assessment Program (AusRAP) report released earlier this month.
The AusRAP program, an initiative of the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), rates Australia's road for safety - from one to five stars. Its rating of the national AusLink network in 2007 showed 58 per cent of the national highway was rated three stars or less.
AAA Research Manager, Greg Smith, said the latest AusRAP report details a study into the relationship between the Star Ratings and the crash costs on the AusLink highway network.
"The report shows that raising the safety rating of a road from two to three stars will halve crash costs – and costs halve again if the road is further upgraded to four stars," Mr Smith said.
The study involved the comparison of crash data and Star Rating results on the Queensland AusLink network assessed as part of the 2007 report. The analysis of average crash costs per vehicle kilometre travelled and the Star Ratings revealed the following results:
"This report clearly demonstrates the value of investing in Australian roads – there is now strong evidence that safer roads do save lives, and an improvement in crash costs can be
expected as a road network improves from two to three to four star and ultimately a five-star road," Mr Smith said.
"In many cases, it is the design of the road and roadside that can ultimately determine whether a crash is a killer or not - investment in safer roads is vital.
"These results will assist in further work currently being undertaken to investigate the actual costs of raising the entire AusLink network to the desired four-star standard.”
The report can be downloaded from the AusRAP website, www.ausrap.org
The upcoming Queensland Budget will target funding at five key areas in the battle to ease urban congestion, according to Premier Anna Bligh.
Ms Bligh told attendees at a Property Council function in Brisbane yesterday that ‘congestion busting’ was one of her Government’s greatest challenges.
Ms Bligh said State Cabinet had approved a Strategy to attack congestion on five fronts:
Ms Bligh revealed details on two separate initiatives:
. $22.6 million over four years to expand the TravelSmart Program, a demand management strategy that encourages people to walk, cycle and take public transport instead of driving, and
. $2 million to provide ‘end of trip’ facilities (such as showers and bike storage) for government employees who walk, run or cycle to work in Brisbane.
The Premier’s comments come in the same week that RACQ has released the results of a field test, finding that Brisbane’s morning peak hour increases vehicle fuel consumption and greenhouse emissions by around 30 percent.
The survey also found the crawl to work took almost twice as long as travelling the same routes between the morning and evening peaks.
The 5th ARF National Roads Summit, to be held in Sydney on June 17 and 18, is shaping as the key roads industry event of 2008.
A popular highlight of the two-day event is the John Shaw Dinner, which this year will feature a keynote address by Mrs Janet Holmes à Court AC, Chairman of John Holland Group.
For full details of the program and online registration, click here.
Submitted by Mark Bowmer on Friday May 23rd 2008 11:05am
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