Industry News – Around the State

AROUND THE GROUNDS

NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE

Building industry review targets developers

The Queensland Government is set to examine the role of property developers as part of a review of industry fairness reforms, following a recommendation from the Queensland Parliament’s Transport and Public Works Committee.

The review will consider the benefits of ensuring everyone is accountable for the financial security and sustainability of the state’s $47.4 billion building industry, and the range of options to achieve this.

The panel will be chaired by Alison Quinn, who has more than 25 years’ experience as a chief executive officer and senior executive in the property development and aged care sectors and include property investment firm chief executive Adrian Pozzo, construction advisory firm managing director Gina Patrick and respected lawyer John Payne.

Haughton River Floodplain upgrade almost complete

The $514 million Haughton River Floodplain upgrade is surging towards completion this year.

The project includes safety and flood resilience upgrades to 13.5km of the Bruce Highway at Giru, midway between Ayr and Townsville, involves building five bridges and two cane rail overpasses, intersection upgrades and installation of wide centreline treatments.

The upgrades are designed to prevent flooding closing the Bruce Highway over the Reed Beds area, which typically closes every couple of years during the wet season, forcing transport operators and the travelling public to wait for waters to recede. The Haughton River Floodplain Upgrade project is jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments on an 80:20 basis.

Archer River Crossing tenders open

Tenders were called in November for a project to upgrade one of Cape York’s well-known waterway crossings.

The Archer River Crossing project is jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments as part of the $237.5 million Cape York Region Package Stage 2.

Every wet season, the Peninsula Developmental Road is closed for long periods at Archer River when the current low-level crossing is inundated by the swollen river. The new crossing will reduce the average annual time of closure to less than two days, improving access for road users and connectivity for some of Queensland’s most remote communities.

The road stretches for 527km between Laura and south of Weipa; when Stage 2 is completed, only 149km will remain unsealed.

The successful tenderer would need to demonstrate a strong commitment to supporting local indigenous workforce and subcontractors.

Mount Mee Road trial targets motorcyclist safety

A new safety trial started in November at Mount Mee in the state’s southeast to improve the safety of motorcyclists, following a shocking 30 per cent increase in lives lost.

The trial aims to reduce the number of tragic incidents involving motorcyclists on mountainous roads. This year is likely to be the worst year on the roads in over a decade, with 242 deaths recorded as of 4 November 2021, including 60 motorcyclists.

The two-part trial involves setting up safety cameras at selected curves along Mount Mee Road where new lane markings have been installed, to monitor how this changes a motorcyclist’s position in the traffic lanes.

Findings will be provided to Austroads, the association of Australian and New Zealand road transport and traffic authorities, a major partner in instigating the trial.

The line marking trial is being delivered by the Centre for Automotive Safety Research and is expected to be completed by mid-2022.

The trial coincides with a RideCraft campaign to encourage riders to tune up their craft to reduce their chances of being involved in a crash.

Biofuelled buses for Mackay

Emerging Gold Coast manufacturer BusTech is building two state-of-the-art bioethanol-fuelled buses to be rolled out on the Mackay bus network.

The two buses will soon hit the road as part of a 12-month trial and will run on bioethanol fuel produced by Wilmar Bioethanol Australia at their bioethanol refinery in Sarina from locally grown sugarcane.

Research indicates that bioethanol buses can reduce carbon by up to 90 per cent and biofuels can play an important role as a stepping-stone to zero emission transport technologies by 2050.

The trial is being funded by Scania, a Swedish manufacturer

of commercial vehicles, and the Queensland Government.

BusTech is also leading the construction of 10 new electric buses that will be based at Clarks Logan City and charged by new Tritium chargers also made in Queensland.

Wind farm Project Cargo to hit Cairns

The Port of Cairns is helping to deliver green energy with the first shipment of wind turbines set to arrive in December.

The turbines and components will be used on Neoen’s $373 million 157-megawatt Kaban wind farm.

The parts to build all 28 wind turbines will be discharged in Cairns before being transported to the Kaban wind farm site near Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands.

With blades measuring in at 80 metres in length and weighing 24 tonnes, this extremely large cargo must be expertly handled and stored before departing for This month eight of the 28 turbines will arrive in the port, with the rest to follow over the next seven months – generating an estimated 27,500 revenue tonnes of cargo over the life of the project.

The wind farm components which include tower sections, blades, nacelles, hubs and drive trains will be unloaded at the wharves and stored at a number of sites in the port including a purpose built five-hectare Tingira Street site.

Ports North Chairman Russell Beer said that upgrades to the project cargo laydown areas in the port were underway with HEH Civil Pty Ltd engaged to carry out the required civil works.

“Ports North has been actively working to increase project cargo shipping through the port and to have another wind farm import its cargo through the port confirms the capabilities of Cairns as a project shipping port,” Mr Beer said.

Gibson Island hydrogen study

Manufacturer Incitec Pivot and Fortescue Future Industries have agreed to study the feasibility of green ammonia production at Brisbane’s Gibson Island.

The feasibility study will assess whether industrial scale manufacturing of green ammonia at Gibson Island is technically and commercially feasible on an existing brownfield site.

It is to investigate building a new water electrolysis facility on the site to produce around 50,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year, which would then be converted into green ammonia for Australian and export markets.

It the feasibility study stacks up, it will allow the establishment of a large-scale green ammonia export facility at lower cost and in a shorter timeframe than many other locations around the world.

Appropriate

The 2021 Asset Management Symposium (AMS) established the benchmark for ongoing conversations regarding best practice asset management for the next decade.

Delegates from a wide range of disciplines and councils and organisations of various size and maturity, gained a better understanding of the asset life cycle and an appreciation of the role they play in the efficient and effective management of the assets, and the levels of service, which support our communities. Download the Guidelines from the 2021 AMS.