Published Tuesday, 15 January, 2008 at 01:13 PM
JOINT STATEMENT
Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning
The Honourable Paul Lucas
Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations
The Honourable John Mickel
Bridge brings busways closer
The next stage of the Eastern Busway is taking shape with the Queensland Government approving the design for a bridge over Ipswich Road which will take hundreds of buses off local roads.
Acting Premier Paul Lucas and Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations John Mickel today inspected work on the $138 million first section of the Eastern Busway.
Mr Lucas said the new bridge will take the busway across Ipswich Road where it will connect with the South East Busway north of Buranda Station.
“The State Government is getting on with the job of building the public transport infrastructure that will cater for a booming South East Queensland,” Mr Lucas said.
“The new bridge, which starts construction in March, will allow buses to move seamlessly from the South East Busway over Ipswich Road to the Princess Alexandra Hospital and on to the Boggo Road Busway, where work is also underway.
“From there, buses can continue over the Eleanor Schonell Bridge to the University of Queensland without having to travel on a public road.
“Once it’s up and running, it is expected 600 buses a day will use the new busway link.
“That’s 20,000 passengers a day who can save up to 20 minutes on a trip from the city to the University of Queensland.
“Each of those passengers could mean one less car on the road and this busway means hundreds of fewer buses on our streets.
“We’ve already seen how eager people are to use public transport to get to the university with patronage on services using Eleanor Schonell Bridge – all of which are State Government funded – going from 1200 people a day when services started to 6000 a day now.”
Minister Mickel said he was happy with progress on section one of the Eastern Busway and the Boggo Road Busway.
Mr Mickel said preliminary work on the bridge would start in March, with the majority of structural work completed late this year.
The 55 metre-long two-span deck structure will use around 1200 cubic metres of concrete and is part of a 305-metre viaduct descending from the Princess Alexandra Hospital Busway Station over Ipswich Road.
"About 70 per cent of the Boggo Road Busway between Princess Alexandra Hospital and Park Road Rail Station is complete and about 10 per cent of the section from Park Road to Dutton Park is finished,” Mr Mickel said.
"Construction in the area near Park Road Rail Station is well advanced and ahead of schedule.
"Early work for section one of the Eastern Busway was completed ahead of schedule and construction of the busway is progressing well.
"The success of Brisbane's busways is due to buses avoiding the traffic congestion that can slow trips and make services less reliable.
“Work on the Inner Northern Busway is progressing well and when all of these projects are complete passengers will be able to travel on a bus from The Royal Brisbane Hospital, through Roma St Station, underneath the CBD and out to the university without having to compete with private cars.
“And given the bus and rail linkages being constructed, passengers will be able to travel even further across South East Queensland without competing with cars.”
The Boggo Road Busway is due for completion mid next year with section one of the Eastern Busway due to be finished late next year.
Media inquiries:
Acting Premier: Robert Hoge 0419 757 868
Minister Mickel: Chris Brown (07) 3237 1944 or Nathan Moir 3235 4060
Acting Premier Paul Lucas and Minister for Transport, Trade, Employment and Industrial Relations John Mickel today inspected work on the $138 million first section of the Eastern Busway.
Mr Lucas said the new bridge will take the busway across Ipswich Road where it will connect with the South East Busway north of Buranda Station.
“The State Government is getting on with the job of building the public transport infrastructure that will cater for a booming South East Queensland,” Mr Lucas said.
“The new bridge, which starts construction in March, will allow buses to move seamlessly from the South East Busway over Ipswich Road to the Princess Alexandra Hospital and on to the Boggo Road Busway, where work is also underway.
“From there, buses can continue over the Eleanor Schonell Bridge to the University of Queensland without having to travel on a public road.
“Once it’s up and running, it is expected 600 buses a day will use the new busway link.
“That’s 20,000 passengers a day who can save up to 20 minutes on a trip from the city to the University of Queensland.
“Each of those passengers could mean one less car on the road and this busway means hundreds of fewer buses on our streets.
“We’ve already seen how eager people are to use public transport to get to the university with patronage on services using Eleanor Schonell Bridge – all of which are State Government funded – going from 1200 people a day when services started to 6000 a day now.”
Minister Mickel said he was happy with progress on section one of the Eastern Busway and the Boggo Road Busway.
Mr Mickel said preliminary work on the bridge would start in March, with the majority of structural work completed late this year.
The 55 metre-long two-span deck structure will use around 1200 cubic metres of concrete and is part of a 305-metre viaduct descending from the Princess Alexandra Hospital Busway Station over Ipswich Road.
"About 70 per cent of the Boggo Road Busway between Princess Alexandra Hospital and Park Road Rail Station is complete and about 10 per cent of the section from Park Road to Dutton Park is finished,” Mr Mickel said.
"Construction in the area near Park Road Rail Station is well advanced and ahead of schedule.
"Early work for section one of the Eastern Busway was completed ahead of schedule and construction of the busway is progressing well.
"The success of Brisbane's busways is due to buses avoiding the traffic congestion that can slow trips and make services less reliable.
“Work on the Inner Northern Busway is progressing well and when all of these projects are complete passengers will be able to travel on a bus from The Royal Brisbane Hospital, through Roma St Station, underneath the CBD and out to the university without having to compete with private cars.
“And given the bus and rail linkages being constructed, passengers will be able to travel even further across South East Queensland without competing with cars.”
The Boggo Road Busway is due for completion mid next year with section one of the Eastern Busway due to be finished late next year.
Media inquiries:
Acting Premier: Robert Hoge 0419 757 868
Minister Mickel: Chris Brown (07) 3237 1944 or Nathan Moir 3235 4060