Inner Northern Busway Tunnel Construction

Right now there is a significant amount of construction going on near King George Square on the Inner Northern Busway. This section represents the construction of the busway from Queen Street to Upper Roma Street, which commenced in June 2006. This has resulted in the closure of a significant portion of King George Square, and a relocation to storage of many of the sculptures and public features there. This new section will allow buses travelling north and west to bypass traffic congestion in Brisbane's CBD by constructing tunnels linking the Queen Street Bus Station (underneath the Myer Centre) to Upper Roma Street, where it will connect with the existing Inner Northern Busway.

There are two tunnels being built as a result of this work. It is currently scheduled for completion in late 2008, and as I understand it they are on schedule. There is a consortium of contractors working with the city council and government to complete the work. If you want, you can download a flythru of the proposed completed work. The main aims of the roadworks are to reduce travel time for the bus network, and reduce traffic congestion on the main arterial roads through the city.

I personally am all for anything which is going to make travel on our bus network better. With the rising costs of petrol, and the continuing influx of people moving to our fair state, anything we can do to help encourage people onto public transport is a good thing. Construction to me is always a sign of progress and change. I heard a story that as they were doing the tunnel work, they actually dug up old sewer lines and previous tram tracks. An urban myth floated around that there was even a whole tram amongst the rubble, but this I can neither confirm nor deny (and so it will keep proliferating!)

Cheers, I Love Brisbane, Wes.

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Construction

All throughout the city there is a lot of construction work going on. It seems to be mainly residential apartments being built, however, there is also the significant work on the Inner Northern Busway which has affected King George Square. Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson, a former Queensland Premier, coined the crane index as a measure of the economic wealth of the State. Via this simple mechanism one could believe that times are pretty good in Brisbane.

As I wandered the city streets I came across this example of some new apartments being built on the Riverside Expressway. This came on the back of news early last week that the Government is proposing a new North Bank development on the river. This particular development is known as Evolution in living. They always come up with interesting names to describe these new living spaces. The marketers must have a field day! This is a 37 level development with 178 apartments built by Citimark and expected to be completed sometime later this year.


What attracted me to the building in the first place was not purely that it was a construction site. It was the Preston Skip hanging from the side of the building, filled with what appears to be plastic piping. The way the pipes were strewn throughout the bin actually appears quite artistic. Perhaps it will become the forecourt sculpture for the new building!

Cheers, I Love Brisbane, Wes.

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