Growing pains impact new south Cairns home construction

Critical infrastructure construction struggling to keep up with the furious pace of development at Cairns southern growth corridor is causing headaches for builders and anxiety for new homeowners.

CRITICAL infrastructure construction struggling to keep up with the furious pace of development at Cairns southern growth corridor is causing headaches for builders and anxiety for new homeowners.

Last year Cairns Regional Council entered into a deal with the State Development Department for a $15m interest-free loan to cover the lion’s share of planned pipelines and an eight megalitre reservoir to service a total of 3750 lots.

But the immediate issue for builders was the connection of the Pinecrest subdivision with council water mains.

Bridgewater Builders director Peter Bridgewater said work had kicked off to build homes on 46 lots at Cooper Rd but no water onsite for cleaning tools and preparing ground ahead of concrete slab pours was not something he had prepared for.

“We need water from day one for form work and we need water when the concrete trucks roll in,” he said.

The first stage of the much-anticipated Pinecrest residential subdivision at Mount Peter. The project is being marketed by Ben Johnston of the Property Shop. Picture: supplied.

“We had them programmed to start and now we don’t know when we will be back to pour.”

Mr Bridgewater said developers had provided a water tank as an interim fix but no power at the site meant water pumps had to be powered by a generator.

But developer Frederik Kroymans said all internal pipe works had been completed and water would be connected toward the end of July.

He said this week other builders were using water supplied by trucks to progress early works.

“I am not aware of any issues and everything will be hooked up when the building is complete,” he said.

Power to the new suburb will be connected on July 17.

Division 1 councillor Brett Moller said he had been working with the developer to facilitate the early unlocking of new housing at Mount Peter, but understood concerns about the provision of water and sewerage services.

“To help accelerate the process in Mount Peter, council allowed for parallel construction of dwellings and infrastructure, rather than the usual sequential model which protracts the length of time until completion,” he said.

“I understand in accordance with our agreement with the developer, prospective buyers were all made aware of this concurrent approach to service delivery.”

A spokesman for the Property Shop (who are marketing the new estate) said the teething problems were a sign of accelerated growth in the area.

“There is impacts being felt across the whole city, there is issues with every estate that I sell that all the problems (developers) are trying to fix,” the spokesman said.

“We are in a land boom and this is what happens.”

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Originally published as Growing pains impact new south Cairns home construction