‘Infrastructure’ and ‘boom’ are two words I’ve been politely smiling at until now without having any real sense of ‘meeting’
This story from the Australian, September 1, has changed that .
I need to share
(Warning: parts may be particularly engrossing to those attached to a unique and powerful all Australian infrastructure and mining company which has announced and acted on intentions to expand )
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/ne...s/news-story/9fb1c0d8005eca0e94df11073ce17206
In case the link doesn’t work here is a taster of starting with Luke Fraser, head of Howard Smith Wharves speaking of Brisbane:
“
I really sense there is a change in the outlook of the city,” he said. “You can see it here … the growth we’ve been talking about for years. It’s happening and this is the realisation of it.”
Not only in Brisbane, either. Sydney and Melbourne are entering a game-changing phase as the nation moves inexorably towards a Big Australia and megacity status for the three east coast capitals. In the space of a generation, the combined population of the three cities is projected to hit 20 million: eight million each for Sydney and Melbourne and at least four million for Brisbane by mid-century, nearly double their sizes today”
.......
The supply side is where the difference can be made through masterplanning and infrastructure provision. And the numbers there are starting to stack up. The big picture is hard to discern through the welter of project announcements and the local rows that often accompany them. But the trend is unmistakeable: record spending and a pipeline of projects to re-engineer the nation’s major population centres.
In Sydney alone, an unprecedented $120 billion has been earmarked for new railways, roads and capital works across the next 10 years as well as the long-awaited second airport at Badgerys Creek on the city’s western fringe. “
........
“Melbourne is matching that outlay, a function of its re-emergence as the nation’s growth centre. A pre-state election pledge this week by Daniel Andrews’s Labor government to build a $50bn subway, spanning 90km, across three decades demonstrates how the construction imperatives have changed. Most of the $120bn-plus worth of projects in the Victorian pipeline are state funded with some help from the federal government and the private sector. Not even the transformational years under change agent Jeff Kennett in the 1990s can rival this.
In Brisbane, the tally is $26.5bn in spending to 2025. The privately funded Howard Smith Wharves development, though impressive, is dwarfed by the big-ticket projects under way. Further along Brisbane River, $3.6bn will be spent on the Queen’s Wharf integrated hotel and casino resort precinct covering more than 26ha. It is set to open in 2024, the year trains are due to start running on the new $5.4bn Cross River Rail subway between Dutton Park, south of the CBD, and Bowen Hills to the north. The Brisbane City Council’s $1bn Brisbane Metro hybrid mass transit system will be in operation by then, while Brisbane Airport’s $1.35bn new runway will double passenger movements to 50 million by 2035.
The story actually catches the pulse of what’s happening (albeit leaving out Adelaide, Perth and Wollongong) and has engendered in me some degree of perhaps not unwarranted excitement about the future ....
(20min delay)
