By Hamish Hastie
The group of companies that built the Boorloo Bridge has been selected to design and build the $217 million Burswood racetrack and amphitheatre.
An alliance between Seymour Whyte Constructions, Civmec and Aurecon Australasia has been announced to design and build the controversial project on the Burswood Peninsula that the state government has dubbed the Perth Entertainment and Sporting precinct.
January artist impression of the Perth street circuit and amphitheatre on the Burswood peninsula.
The alliance is the same group that built the $187 million Boorloo Bridge, which was completed in December last year $50 million over the original budget.
“The preferred alliance team announced today have delivered some of our most iconic projects, including the new locally made Boorloo Bridge, which has become an incredible piece of public infrastructure,” Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said.
“This project will deliver significant economic benefits to the state, as well as deliver quality public infrastructure for the local and wider community to benefit from for decades to come.
“The Perth Entertainment and Sporting Precinct will be another cornerstone project to highlight WA’s local capability and capacity and represents significant jobs and opportunities for WA workers and business.”
The racetrack was a key election promise by WA Labor and includes an amphitheatre with seating 15,000 to 20,000 people.
The state plans to host an annual V8 Supercars event at the track and has been investigating the possibility of hosting a Formula E event.
It has become a lightning rod for controversy, with the opposition, Greens and Town of Victoria Park opposing the project.
Both parties questioned the government’s spending priorities by pursuing the project and the loss of inner city green space.
Shadow Treasurer Sandra Brewer accused Saffioti of pursuing pet projects like the racetrack over other government priorities.
“We’ve seen it time and time again, if it’s a transport project or an infrastructure project for sport, which has the impetus of this transport minister’s efforts behind it, it becomes the number one priority of the government, and spending is happening at any cost,” she said.
Brewer also raised concerns about the selection of the Boorloo Bridge consortium given the cost blowouts on that project.
“WA taxpayers should be deeply concerned that this is the same contracting alliance that delivered the causeway pedestrian bridge at over 50 per cent overspent on its initial budget,” she said.
Greens leader Brad Pettitt said the money would be better spent on housing projects.
“The Burswood project will divert scarce labour and resources away from essential housing projects in the middle of a homelessness emergency and sheds appalling light on what projects Labor considers a priority,” he said.
Burswood and East Perth residents have also formed a Save Burswood Park alliance to oppose the levelling of the Burswood Parklands for the project.
Recent on-site consultation sessions did little to temper anger over the project, with residents upset that their calls for the project to be abandoned altogether were ignored.
Parliamentary secretary to the premier Daniel Pastorelli will chair the project’s steering committee and is running the consultation side of the project.
He said the sessions had generated hundreds of ideas for the precinct.
“The alliance team will be asked to respond to these ideas through the design and development stage and I look forward to working with this locally based team to deliver for WA,” he said.
“The WA government is committed to delivering this key election commitment, to help diversify the WA economy, creating new local jobs for future generations and building a world-class entertainment precinct that promotes the best of WA to the world.”