In a significant milestone for the turn-up-and-go Brisbane Metro, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has announced Brisbane Move consortium as the preferred tenderer for construction of a major part of the project.
“This is an exciting milestone in the progress of the Brisbane Metro; we have now chosen the ACCIONA-ARUP consortium as the preferred tenderer and we will be working to have the contract finalised in the next few months.
“There are 2600 jobs in play across the project and hundreds of supplier opportunities on the table so it’s great news that we are now working with the preferred tenderer to get moving on the next phase of this crucial Brisbane project,” Cr Schrinner said.
ACCIONA and ARUP both have a significant presence in Queensland and many signature projects, including Legacy Way, the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing and Cross River Rail.
“The coronavirus pandemic has devastated the local economy; we need construction projects to accelerate right now and today marks a line in the sand; Brisbane Metro is moving forward,” Cr Schrinner said.
“This project is vital in driving Brisbane’s economic recovery and jobs growth as we emerge from this economic challenge,” Cr Schrinner said.
With the conclusion of the upcoming tender, more than 150 people are planned to work on construction of the Brisbane Metro Depot at Rochedale and early works are continuing in South Brisbane.
“There is discussion continuing around the Cultural Precinct and we are having productive meetings with the State Government,” Cr Schrinner said.
The tender for the Metro pilot vehicle was awarded last year to manufacturer Hess, who will partner with Volgren in Eagle Farm to partially assemble the first order of up to 60 vehicles.
The Brisbane Metro project has changed since its conception, including the upgrade to the Metro vehicles to be fully electric, rather than diesel, which will require extra infrastructure, such as flash charging points at stops along the route.
More land for the Rochedale depot was bought to enable future expansion of the depot in anticipation of later stages being added to the Brisbane Metro, for example to the airport and along the northern corridor.