| Airport Link | |
|---|---|
| Route information | |
| Length: | 6.5 km (4.0 mi) |
| Major junctions | |
| From: |
Inner City Bypass,Bowen Hills |
| To: |
Gateway MotorwayToombul |
| Location | |
| Primary destinations: |
Windsor, Lutwyche, Kedron, Wooloowin |
| Highway system | |
|
Highways in Australia |
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The Airport Link is a tunnelled motorway grade road which is under construction in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It will connect the Brisbane central business district and the Clem Jones Tunnel to the East-West Arterial Road which leads to the Brisbane Airport. It is being built in conjunction with the Windsor to Kedron section of the Northern Busway in approximately the same corridor.
The Airport Link and busway project involves 15 km of tunnelling including the road (5.7 km of twin tunnels), busway tunnels and connecting ramps, as well as 25 bridges and result in over 7 km of new road. The estimated construction cost of the Airport Link is $4.8 billion.[1] Construction of the Airport Link, Northern Busway and Airport Roundabout Upgrade projects is scheduled for completion in mid 2012.[2]
The toll (set at 2006 prices) between Bowen Hills and Kedron or Toombul has been set at $4.00 while the toll between Kedron and Toombul is $3.00. The toll will be indexed in line with Brisbane CPI.[3] It's been estimated the eventual toll charge will $4.85 per trip when the road opens.[4] The tolls will be collected via a 'free-flow tolling system', an electronic tolling system based on overhead gantries reading a tag fitted inside vehicles or by taking a photograph of licence plates, avoiding the need for vehicles to slow or stop. The Go via and FLOW Tolling systems will be used. Any other Australian toll road tag will work on the Airport Link toll road.[3]
On 16 July 2008, the State Government announced that the tunnel will be part of the M7 Motorway, which also includes the Clem Jones Tunnel.
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The contract was awarded to the consortium BrisConnections, composed of Macquarie Group, Thiess and John Holland, beating two other consortia (North Connect and Northern Motorway). BrisConnections was announced as the preferred bidder on 19 May 2008,[5] and the final contract was awarded on 2 June 2008.
Conducted as a public-private partnership (PPP), the Airport Link project has been mired in controversy from the outset. Macquarie Group charged $110 million in fees for the financial engineering which used the equity from private investors to raise the necessary debt and planned to pay investor distributions from capital, an arrangement which resembles a Ponzi scheme and has been ridiculed as the "dead parrot model", after the famous Monty Python comedy sketch.[6] Queensland Premier Anna Bligh enjoyed a free holiday at the Sydney mansion of Thiess director Ros Kelly just before the contract was awarded.[7] Former Labor ministers Terry Mackenroth and Con Sciacca were paid a "success fee", (as government relations advisors) believed to be about $500,000, by BrisConnections after the consortium won the tender.[8]
BrisConnections was listed as a unit trust on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) via a $1.2 billion initial public offering (IPO) of installment receipts (or stapled securities) on 31 July 2008 (ASX: BCS). This was the largest IPO in Australia in 2008 and the most disastrous. The value of initial $1 installments fell by 60 per cent on the first day of trading, and by late November had collapsed to 0.1c, the lowest possible price on the ASX.[9] The dramatic price slide was largely due to the leverage risk associated with stapled securities.[10] Among the institutional investors was QIC, the state-owned corporation that invests the superannuation funds for Queensland's public servants, which invested $25 million. The Chairman of QIC is Trevor Rowe, who is also the Chairman of BrisConnections and was awarded Member of the Order of Australia in 2004 "for service to the investment banking sector and as a contributor to the formulation of public policy ... and to the community."[11]
It is believed that some of this negative market sentiment was in response to the traffic forecasts contained within the Product Disclosure Statement lodged by BrisConnections. The EIS previously lodged by government[12] showed traffic forecasts in 2012 of 95,000 vehicles per day, rising to 120,000 motorists by 2026. The Product Disclosure Statement [13] prepared by [PBA] provides forecast of 193,000 vehicles in 2012 rising to 291,000 vehicles by 2026.
During the early period of the BrisConnections listing most of the securities were owned by institutional investors, however as the price collapsed many of these institutions divested their now worthless stock, including Macquarie Group.[14] Most of these shares were taken up by retail investors who were unaware that two further $1 installments on the stapled securities were owing and faced financial ruin as a result.[15] BrisConnections has threatened to sue these investors in order to raise the capital necessary to continue the project, while reducing dividends by 99 per cent.[16] There are no further installments owning which means there are no further obligations on shareholders attached to the units.[17]
While promoting BrisConnections at their media event in April 2009, Premier Anna Bligh denied any responsibility for the fate of the "Mum and Dad" investors saying, "it is not the role of the Queensland Government to underwrite private investment decisions made by people who were seeking to make a profit investing in the stock market".[18] At this time, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) belatedly sought to act on behalf of investors and to seek an independent report of BrisConnections' finances.[19] BrisConnections was nearly wound up in April 2009 after the private company of one investor, Nicholas Bolton, requisitioned a general meeting of members of the managing company. However on the date of the meeting the proxies attached to Bolton's shares were exercised to against the resolutions, Bolton's company having earlier sold the proxy rights for $4.5 million to Theiss-John Holland (a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings and the contractor for the Airport Link project). Therefore the special resolution fell short of the required 75% vote to pass and BrisConnections was allowed to continue operating under its current form.[20]
In May, 70% (278 million) of outstanding shares defaulted on the second $1 instalment payment.[21] Some shareholders transferred their shares off market to false identities, such as Humphrey B. Bear, in order to avoid payment.[22] An auction of shares in default failed to attract a bidder. In June, BrisConnections commenced legal action to recover the unpaid moneys.[23] With Brisconnections launching legal claims against defaulting investors, controversial businessman Jim Byrnes postured as a champion of small investors.[24] The controversy featured prominently in Brisbane newspapers: The name 'BrisConnections' was played upon as a 'con', the project and ensuing farce being dubbed by the media as 'BrisCon'. In October, BrisConnections notified ASX it would stop pursuing defaulting investors.[25]
By early December 2009, the share price of the second $1 installments had collapsed to 0.1c. With little other interest in the "toxic" stock at this time, the chief executive officer, Ray Wilson, paid $10 for 5,000 shares.[26] Two other directors of BrisConnections also purchased share parcels of a similar size, helping to raise the share price to 0.5c by mid-December, however the share price had again collapsed to 0.1c by year's end.
As at 19 March 2010, 3.3 km of tunnels already dug and 13 roadheader machines (each 18.2 m in diameter and weigh 135 tons) in use on tunnels. In the coming months this will rise to 16 roadheader machines.[1]
On 17 June 2009, CNI requested that the Coordinator-General evaluate a proposed change to the Airport Link project under section 35C of the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971. Due to the discovery during the first half of 2009 of less than favourable ground conditions in the vicinity of the Kedron ramps, BrisConnections proposed the establishment of a new worksite on vacant land at Rose Street, Wooloowin, between Kent and Park Roads to facilitate improved construction access to the mainline tunnels. A shaft 15 metres in diameter and 42 metres deep would be constructed to launch two of the project’s ‘roadheader’ excavation machines. It is anticipated that the worksite would be in use for up to 29 months, including backfilling and rehabilitation.[12]
In August 2009 the main earthmoving contractor TF Group went into receivership, owing subcontractors as much as $2.8 million. A group of these subcontractors threatened to blockade the project until their outstanding debts were paid.[27]
| Brisbane Motorways | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Pacific · Bruce · Gateway · Ipswich · ICB · Logan · Western · Centenary · CLEM7 · Airport Link | ||||||||||