North-South Bypass Tunnel, Brisbane

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This article or section contains information about a planned or expected future tunnel.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the tunnel approaches, and more information becomes available.

North-South Bypass Tunnel
Queensland Roads
Length	6.8km
General direction	North-South
From	Bowen Hills
To	Woolloongabba
Places passed	Kangaroo Point

Artist's impression of the Southern Portal of the tunnel.

The North-South Bypass Tunnel, also known as RiverCity Motorway, is a $3.2 AUD billion toll road to be built underground between Woolloongabba and Bowen Hills in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

The major benefit of the tunnel is that it will bypass 18 existing sets of traffic lights, and provide an additional Brisbane River crossing.

This tunnel was originally proposed by then Labor Lord Mayor Jim Soorley in 2001, and was incorporated into the Liberal Candidate Campbell Newman's five tunnel vision "TransApex" in 2002.

1 The tender
2 Controversy
3 The public offering
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] The tender

The successful tenderer, RiverCity Motorway Limited, was announced by Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman on 27 April 2006, beating a bid by the Brisconnections consortium. Details on the losing tender will not be released, despite Newman promising that he would in April 2006.

It has been rumoured that Brisconnections did propose 3 lane tunnel in each direction. It is speculated that this bid was rejected as the connections at each end to existing roads/motorways were not as advanced as the Rivercity Motorway proposal. The details of this proposal have not been made public.

This tunnel will be tolled for a minimum of 45 years, or ten years more than promised by Newman in the 2004 election.

The toll on this tunnel is expected to be more than $4.10 when the tunnel is finally opened in late 2010/early 2011. This is more than twice the $2 tolls promised by Newman.

Construction costs for the tunnel are more than triple Newman's election estimates.

Newman has been criticised for his decision to not let the details of the tenders be revealed until the contracts are signed and confirmed, taking away the possibility of public debate over the agreement.

[edit] Controversy

There has also been considerable controversy over the environmental hazards which may be caused by the construction phase and operation of the tunnels, particularly regarding the position of exhaust ventilation stacks.

One of the reasons for building the tunnel as a Public Private Partnership(PPP) is that it should reduce Brisbane City Council's risks regarding the tunnel construction and operation. The validity of this risk transfer is highly questionable. (Look at the Product Disclosure Statement Chapter 8 for instances where the risks are not transferred.)

[edit] The public offering

There has also been a number of questions raised in The Australian and the Australian Financial Review about the viability of the public offering for the tunnel. Rivercity Motorway is confident that the public offering will be successful. The initial share offer was shares at a cost of $1.00 with 50% deferred for 12 months. The shares were listed on the ASX at $0.46 (8 % below the offer price) and have traded for as little as $0.355 (29% below offer price, 14 Feb 2007.)

A dividend of 2.4c per stapled unit has recently been released to investors.