Brisbane’s Port Expansion Project Ready To Go

Issued by Minister for Transport and Minister for Main Roads

12 August 2003

A $90 million expansion of the Port of Brisbane will lead to more than 1500 jobs and provide a major boost for regional development, Transport and Main Roads Minister Steve Bredhauer announced today.

Mr Bredhauer said work would start this week on the 4.5km seawall, which will form the boundary of a 230ha reclamation site at Fisherman Islands.

“This $90 million Smart State construction project will create 70 jobs and includes contracts for both the Toowoomba and Beaudesert areas,” Mr Bredhauer said.

“Further major employment benefits will follow as the site is filled with material from maintenance dredging over the next 25 years.

“Once it is fully developed, up to 1860 jobs will be created through use of the extension for port and industry-related industries.

“When added to current employment figures and jobs created by full development of the existing land, as many as 6300 people could be employed on Fisherman Islands by 2025.”

Mr Bredhauer said the Port of Brisbane Corporation had formed the FPE Seawall Alliance for the design and construction of the seawall. The alliance includes Leighton Contractors, Coffey Geosciences, WBM Oceanics and Parsons Brinckerhoff.

“Construction is expected to take about 18 months and finish in the first half of 2005,” Mr Bredhauer said.

“The seawall is a rock structure, which will be placed on top of a layer of geotextile and sand. It will be made up of about 1.25 million tonnes of rock, 220,000m² of high-strength geotextile, 155,000m² of filtration geotextile, and 425,000m³ of sand.

“Regional Queensland is also a winner through the awarding of a contract to Darling Downs Tarpaulins in Toowoomba for stitching the high-strength geotextile which will be laid on the seabed beneath the rock.

“The rock supply contract for the project has been awarded to Beaudesert Blue Metal Quarries of Bromleton near Beaudesert.

“In conjunction with Pacific National, Beaudesert Blue Metals will supply and deliver rock by rail to the Port of Brisbane’s Brisbane Multimodal Terminal.

“QR’s Network Access Group will build a 1km rail siding immediately adjacent to the quarry.

“Importantly, rail transport of quarry products to the site from October will eliminate more than 60,000 truck movements from city roads over the life of the project,” Mr Bredhauer said.

“This will generate new employment for up to six people at Pacific National’s Brisbane Freight Terminal.”

Mr Bredhauer said the seawall would lie immediately adjacent to the Moreton Bay Marine Park to the east and south. Careful attention has been given to turbidity control measures and other impact mitigation measures to minimise impacts on the marine park and local communities during construction activities.