Bid assessment began at the end of December on tenders submitted by the three shortlisted groups for Brisbane’s 7km long airport link and northern busway tunnel projects.
Queensland state government treasurer, Andrew Fraser, confirmed that the three shortlisted groups had all lodged bids on 14 December. The award of the contract is not expected until the middle of this year.
The bidders are: BrisConnections – formed by Thiess, John Holland and Macquarie Capital Group; NorthConnect Motorway, comprising Baulderstone Hornibrook, Bilfinger Berger Civil, Babcock & Brown and Abigroup; and, Northern Motorway, formed by Leighton Contractors and ABN AMRO Australia (T&TI, August, p10).
Fraser said: “These groups have invested significant resources and put an enormous amount of work into preparing their bids. These projects are a vital part of our comprehensive infrastructure plan to meet Brisbane’s transport needs.”
He added that tender evaluation was likely to take about six months. A state government-led team is to assess the bids in terms of engineering design, traffic benefits, environmental outcomes, community outcomes as well as value-for-money.
With the preferred bidder being selected about June 2008, the public-private partnership (PPP) contract is expected to be signed around September. Construction would start shortly after and both projects are to be completed in 2012.
The PPP plans call for the winning firm to finance, design, construct, commission, operate and maintenance of the airport link underground toll road, which consists of a 6.7km highway of which 5.7km will be in tunnels. The road will connect the North-South bypass tunnel (T&TI, November, p32), inner city bypass and the local road network at Bowen Hills with Gympie and Stafford Roads at Kedron.
The same contractor will also build the Windsor to Kedron section of the northern busway which will also be constructed in tunnel. The projects are being overseen by City North Infrastructure, which is wholly owned by the Queensland government.
