Major Construction Projects in Australia

Australia's longest road tunnel project, is underway in Brisbane, where the two largest tunnel boring machines to ever operate in Australia are steadily churning their way underground from the City to the Airport on the city's eastern outskirts. The tunnel boring machines are capable of chewing their way through 85 metres of rock a week, and will have disc cutters with a diameter of half the width of an Olympic swimming pool.
Each machine requires a team of 22 specialist operators at all times, and amongst other things installs a full circle of concrete lining continuously as part of the excavation process. Click here for more info on the Airport Link Tunnel Project Combined with the building construction of the next stage of the Northern Busway from the suburb of Windsor to Kedron, and the Airport Drive connection flyover this is the biggest road and tunnel project in Australia's history. The Airport Link is set to be finished in 2012.

Australia's tallest building was built on the Gold Coast at Surfers Paradise in 2005. The Q1 Tower which reaches 322 metres high (which when we compare to the growing Burj Dubai at over 800 metres, is a midget) is at this point in time the World's tallest residential tower, and boasts 80-storey high. The Q1 building is the highest point between the Hinterland behind Surfers Paradise and South America, and is designed to only sway 80-cm at the top, in a category five cyclone. As with other skyscrapers, as the building raised higher the concrete mix had to be adapted to ensure the pumpability. Q1 has four different concrete mixes progressing up through its reaches.

A major upgrade of the Gateway Motorway over the Brisbane River in South East Queensland is currently underway, which includes the duplication of the Gateway Bridge and upgrades to 20km of motorway from south to north of the river. The Gateway Bridge which was completed and opened in 1986 was heralded at the time as being an engineering triumph. Engineers had a challenging project of constructing a bridge in very close proximity to the Brisbane Airport and one that was spanning a working river. Thus the restrictions of being no higher than 80 metres and no lower than 55 metres were in place to satisfy air traffic and shipping navigation requirements. The bridge arcs over the Brisbane River and at its highest point is equivalent to a 20 storey building.

The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority are undertaking a project to transform the Darling Walk site in covering 1.5 hectare area in the Darling Harbour vicinity. Demolition of existing structures has commenced and work is planned to start sometime in 2009, with key features being public space, pedestrian boulevard, children's play areas, underground parking spaces, retail and commercial office space. Overall costs are set to be around $560 million and completion is due in late 2011.

The Sydney Opera House, completed after much controversy in 1973 is now due for a grand overhaul. It is estimated that the project will run over seven years, costing about $900 million ensuring that the World Heritage Listed building does not undergo any visible changes. The biggest engineering feat planned is the lowering of the opera theatre floor by 18 metres, when completed it will allow for more seating in the auditorium, and fulfil the vision that the late Mr Utzon the original extraordinary architect had before he walked away from the project in 1966. This will be an engineering challenge of the greatest magnitude, and will cause the building of a new box office also part of the upgrade plans to pale into insignificance.

An interesting site to see what is going on next with great forcasting and new project tools is; Construction Forecasting Council website.