North-South Bypass Tunnel, Brisbane

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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 as the construction 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

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. It will provide two lanes of traffic in each direction. When completed, it will be the longest road tunnel in Australia.

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.

In December 2007, Brisbane City Council decided to name the tunnel the Clem Jones Tunnel in honour of the former lord mayor. ^[1]

1 The tender
2 Controversy
3 The public offering
4 Construction Details
5 See also
6 References
7 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.

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, despite Newman promising a toll of no more than $2.00 including GST during the election.

[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. However, the public disclosure documents released by Rivercity Motorway indicate that there are still considerable un-costed risks left with Council. For example, a 10 metre extension was required for the exhaust stack at the Woolloongabba end of the tunnel and the full cost was required to be borne by Brisbane City Council not Rivercity Motorway.

The losing bid by the Brisconnections consortium incorporated three lanes of traffic in each direction (as opposed to two lanes for the winning bid). With a price difference of $20 AUD million the decision to build a two lane tunnel has been criticised as shortsighted.

BrisConnections did win the tender for the Airport link, which will link directly with the North South Bypass Tunnel. Airport Link is expected to open on 2012.

^[2] particularly in light of Brisbane's claim of having the highest population growth out of all Australian cities.

[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.) The ASX issuer code for the Rivercity Motorway Group is RCY.

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

[edit] Construction Details

As of May 2008, the tunnel has moved from O'Connell Tce to the RNA showgrounds between Gregory Tce and St Pauls Tce, with a peak construction rate of approximately 18 metres per day. Bridges are reaching the final stages at the Northern Portal, and the Morrissey Street bridge will shortly be completed at Wooloongabba.

December 2009 is still the goal for completion.