In May 2007, the Queensland Government updated its $82 billion blueprint for upgrading a range of infrastructure in South East Queensland (SEQ). The South East Queensland Infrastructure Plan 2006-2026 (SEQIP) outlines two decades of development of road, rail, water, energy, health, education and community infrastructure. Of this, $35 billion has been allocated for a roads and transport package for roads, rail, buses, walking and cycling, with a potential additional $15 billion dollars also being considered for transport infrastructure.

Five of the significant SEQIP transport projects that Connell Wagner’s Brisbane Geotechnical section are currently working on are the Eastern Busway and the SEQIP Rail Projects, Robina to Varsity Lakes Rail Extension, Corinda to Darra Third Track, Caboolture to Beerburrum Line, Beerburrum to Landsborough Line. These projects encompass almost 40 km of new rail infrastructure and over 16 km of proposed new busway infrastructure that include large scale earthworks, numerous substantial bridges, tunnels, significant roadworks and station structures.

The presentation will give a brief overview of each of these projects and discuss the aspects of the geotechnical engineering for each of the projects, with a focus on the Eastern Busway and the Robina to Varsity Lakes projects.

Speaker Biography

Patrick Kidd is currently working as a Project Engineering Geologist for Connell Wagner’s Brisbane and Gold Coast offices. Patrick holds a BAppSc, MgeoSc and a DipConSiteSup. Patrick is registered as RPGEO, RPEQ, NPER, CPEng and MIEAust.

Patrick has over 13 years experience in engineering geology and geotechnical engineering and has worked extensively throughout Queensland, northern New South Wales and on projects located throughout all the mainland states, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Indonesia, Laos and India. Currently he is the current project leader for the geotechnical engineering on the Eastern Busway project, the Robina to Varsity Lakes Rail Line Extension project (TrackStar Alliance) and a number of other large rail infrastructure projects throughout Queensland.

The TransApex plan for Brisbane was proposed in 1995 as a network of ring routes and additional river crossings for highway traffic to improve traffic flow through and around the Brisbane CBD area. A series of 4 tunnel projects formed the core of the scheme, in addition to the Hale Street Bridge.

The first tunnel element of the scheme, the North South Bypass Tunnel is now 2 years into construction, the second tunnel element, the Airport Link Northern Busway Project has recently been awarded, and the third tunnel element, the Northern Link, is expected to be tendered later this year. The fourth element, the Western Link, is not planned to be delivered for 10 – 15 years, and may not be constructed as currently planned.

The talk will focus on the status of each of the tunnels today, and some of the key features which are, or are anticipated to be incorporated to deliver the improved connectivity which the TransApex scheme aims to deliver.

Speaker Biography

Charlie Jewkes leads PB’s National Tunnelling Group, and is based at PB’s Brisbane office. Charlie holds a Bachelor of Science (Geology with Engineering Geology) from The Royal School of Mines, London, and a Masters of Science (Engineering Rock Mechanics), also from the RSM. Charlie is a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Materials, Mining and Metallurgy, a Fellow of the Geological Society and a member of the British Tunnelling Society and the Australasian Tunnelling Society.

Charlie has over 15 years of experience in mining and tunnelling engineering projects, both as a constructor and as a consultant, covering work in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Charlie has worked for PB for 3 years, and prior to that for Skanska Mining and Tunnelling, BHP, and RGC Mineral Sands.