Inland Rail one step closer

The Toowoomba and Darling Downs sections of the $11.2 billion national Inland Rail is now one step closer to commencement, with documents for the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) 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 (TSBE) Energy and Infrastructure General Manager, Lance MacManus, said this is an important milestone in this major project.

“With the Toowoomba and Darling Downs sections of Inland Rail providing 2,000 jobs and four to five years of construction, this is a fantastic milestone to reach.”

The PPP will be a contract between the Federal Government, State Government and private funding with long term operations and maintenance contracts.

This type of construction contract is not new to our 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 says 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 Toowoomba and Surat Basin 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 underway and expected to be undertaken in our region, including capabilities for the rail projects.

For more information, visit www.tsbe.com.au or email [email protected].