PPP documents for Toowoomba Range Inland Rail section released to bidding consortiums
A massive public-private partnership that will see 6.5km of tunnelling through the Toowoomba Range as the Inland Rail heads east is a step closer.
Business
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The Toowoomba and Darling Downs sections of the $11.2 billion national Inland Rail is now one step closer to starting, with documents for the Public-Private Partnership now released to the bidding consortiums.
Three consortiums have been approved to bid on the PPP which will form the Gowrie to Kagaru section, the largest and most complex of the entire project.
Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise energy and infrastructure general manager Lance MacManus said this was an important milestone in the major project.
“With the Toowoomba and Darling Downs sections of Inland Rail providing 2000 jobs and four to five years of construction, this is a fantastic milestone to reach,” he said.
The PPP will be a contract between the Federal Government, State Government and private funding with long term operations and maintenance contracts.
PPP construction contracts are not new to the region, with the recently completed $1.7 billion Toowoomba Bypass delivered under a similar model.
Inland Rail is an even bigger project that will involve the construction of 126km of rail between Gowrie, near Toowoomba, to Kagaru, which is about 60km south of Brisbane, as well as the operation and maintenance for 25 years.
“The engineering challenges of traversing the Great Dividing Range means we will need substantial infrastructure construction, including a new 6.5km tunnel, ” said Mr MacManus.
“The winning consortium’s obligations will include the construction of three tunnels in the Toowoomba, Little Liverpool and Teviot ranges of 6.5km, 1.1km and 1km respectively, as well as 126km of single and dual gauge rail tracks, 37 bridges and 21 viaducts.”
Mr MacManus said TSBE will be engaging with the bidding consortiums, and encourages businesses looking at being part of this once in a lifetime project to look at how they can get involved.
TSBE has recently launched the Supplier Portal, a web-based tool designed to map out major projects in the region and provide buyers with intel on local capability.
The state-of-the-art platform is capable of capturing business capability against a variety of major projects, both under way and proposed in the region, including capabilities for the rail projects.
For more information, visit www.tsbe.com.au or email lance@tsbe.com.au.
