[Brisbane] Building Queensland’s first Infrastructure Pipeline Report released
The Queensland Government last week welcomed the release of Building Queensland’s inaugural Infrastructure Pipeline Report, which sets out for the first time an independent view of the state’s infrastructure priorities.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure Jackie Trad said the delivery of the pipeline report was a major milestone in the Government’s commitment to remove politics from infrastructure planning, following the establishment of Building Queensland in December 2015.
“As an independent organisation, Building Queensland is able to provide our government with impartial and expert advice on where we should invest the state’s infrastructure funds,” Ms Trad said.
“For the first time, our state now has a clear pipeline of infrastructure projects which have been independently assessed and prioritised based on returns to local communities and our state’s economy.”
The report contains 16 priority proposals at various stages of development. Twelve proposals will be considered for further development and the remaining four are ready for investment consideration:
- Cross River Rail;
- European Train Control System (ETCS)—Inner City;
- Cunningham Highway—Yamanto Interchange to Ebenezer Creek; and
- Pacific Motorway—Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes.
“Building Queensland’s Infrastructure Pipeline reaffirms that Cross River Rail is our number one infrastructure priority to unlock essential network capacity and increase economic opportunity and productivity for our state,” Ms Trad said.
“The pipeline report also confirms the importance of our recent $634 million commitment in the 2016-17 State Budget to deliver an ETCS which will pave the way for Cross River Rail.
“The Queensland Government set aside an extra $1.5 billion in the Budget for the next phase of priority infrastructure needs, and now that we have received Building Queensland’s pipeline and independent advice we will be making decisions as to how this is allocated in due course.
“Through our State Infrastructure Plan and our continued work with Building Queensland, our Government is committed to delivering the projects that will sustain the construction industry and create a lasting and beneficial legacy for the people of Queensland.”
The Infrastructure Pipeline Report articulates for the first time priorities across all key sectors and reflects proposals currently under development by Queensland Government departments, government owned corporations and a number of statutory authorities.
Source: News Release, Urbanalyst, 3rd July, 2016