Cross River Rail: Tradies exodus caused 3-year delay, CEO reveals
Brisbane's biggest infrastructure project faces an extraordinary $11.6bn cost explosion after tradies walked off the site during industrial action to chase work elsewhere.
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Tradies walked off Brisbane’s $17bn Cross River Rail project to chase pay cheques at Queen’s Wharf, leaving key stations half finished and blowing the project out by three years.
Details of specialist workers being blocked from the rail site during CFMEU strikes were laid bare during transport budget estimates, with Cross River Rail CEO Graeme Newton revealing he warned the former Labor government that the project was under threat and facing financial stress before last October’s state election.
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“We saw things like tilers would need to turn up in a group to be able to go and do a mass amount of work and if they didn’t turn up, or they couldn’t get access, that was having a detrimental impact on the program,” Mr Newton said.
“They’d go off and work on other sites, they weren’t able to come back.
■ Cross River Rail: A history of bungles, blowouts and blow-ups
“The Ekka Station had this with handrails. The workers would go off and work on Queens Wharf, and then they’d be gone for two weeks, same with lifts, escalators, those sort of specialist skills.”
Established in 2016, the 10.2km Cross River Rail line was due for completion in 2026 but faced excessive delays due to 148 days of strike action over an EBA dispute between CPB Contractors and the CFMEU following safety complaints.
A wage deal was finally brokered in December 2024 following 19-month standoff.
Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg weeks later revealed the once $5.4bn project would now cost taxpayers a mammoth $17bn and wouldn't be operational until 2029.
Opposition transport spokesman Bart Mellish on Thursday demanded answers as to why the project timeline had blown out by three years to 2029 and when the Cross River Rail Authority became aware of the delay.
Mr Newton said Labor had been briefed on project issues up until September, due to the 54 days of strike action that had already occurred at the Brisbane site.
“At that stage, it was becoming quite evident, and I briefed the government at the time that the project was under threat, that the contractor was experiencing financial distress,” he said.
“The construction timeframe delivery was slipping, and there was an expectation that construction may not be completed.
“The issue that was happening during the protected industrial action is there was some unprotected action occurring as well, with subcontractors not attending site, and the works were being disrupted.
“We had circumstances where subcontractors were not able to get access to site.”
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Originally published as Cross River Rail: Tradies exodus caused 3-year delay, CEO reveals
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