This city has big plans. And when we say big. We mean big.
Skyscrapers. The Olympics. Massive new megaprojects pushing the bounds of engineering.
And it’s all happening down under.
The next decade will see a transformation on an international scale. And it’s all
beginning right now with the biggest infrastructure project
in the state’s history. A new metro that burrows under the city itself.
But this isn’t Sydney or Melbourne.
This is Brisbane. Australia’s fastest growing city.
Now if you haven’t heard of Brisbane before … you’re not alone. But the city has lofty
ambitions. That much was clear when it won the bid for the 2032 Olympic Games.
Brisbane is Australia’s third city, but it’s growing at a phenomenal
rate. About a thousand people are moving to the region every week.
While the Olympics are a part of Brisbane's rebranding as an international destination,
it won the bid precisely because of the city’s commitment to its ambitions and the
massive new infrastructure already being planned.
That includes the $6.3BN megaproject Cross River Rail. It’s a new 10.2-kilometre rail line
with 5.9 kilometres of twin tunnels that dive under the Brisbane River and Central Business
District, or CBD. Essentially, they’re building a massive new railway right below downtown Brisbane.
The project also includes four new underground stations and eight upgraded
stations, plus the development of three new Gold Coast Stations.
But really beyond that, what you've got is a network that is hasn't been upgraded
for quite some time. And so we've got stations in the inner suburbs,
which some of them date back to when they were first built were in the late 1800s.
That’s Graeme, he knows a lot about this project.
I'm the CEO of the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority.
The scale of it will be it's really the biggest infrastructure project in the city's history in
the center. And what it will do is change the way in which people actually move around the city.
Cross River Rail seeks to rectify a major problem with Brisbane itself.
You see, Brisbane is a city defined by its river, for better or worse. And this river is a beast.
The Brisbane River's quite a large river. It's tidal and several hundred meters wide
and it's quite deep. So it creates a bit of a barrier and it sort of
separates the city from north to south. But it's a meandering river as well too.
Right now there is only one crossing over the river, severing the city into two distinct halves.
In 1979 there was bridge built across the river, but that's really the only crossing
and that constrains the way in which the rail network can operate transit to 24 trains per
hour. Cross River Rail provides a second crossing of that river, but actually goes under the river.
The new railway will ease the pressure on the current rail network which is nearing capacity.
This transformation that we're doing basically unlocks that
bottleneck that's in the middle of the city, which is is really tied to that
historical development. So we're really sort of unshackling the core of the city.
Untying this knot will unlock enormous economic
potential as well as revitalising previously disconnected precincts.
The construction of the rail itself already provides the city with 1,500 jobs per year.
There is a business case for it as well. One report predicts the project’s
benefits will outweigh the costs by AUS $1.9BN. And for every dollar invested,
the project will return $1.41 in benefits for Queenslanders.
The development in some economic forecasting multipliers take it
to sort of 15 to $20 billion worth of growth and in the order of
35,000 jobs around just basically as a result of the interconnectedness that you're going
to get out of having the rail system and then the development around those.
Perhaps the most important reason for the construction of the Cross
River Rail is the absolute population explosion the region is set to have.
The population of South East Queensland is forecast to grow
from 3.5 million today to 4.9 million in 2036.
In just a few years that puts the region on par with Melbourne and Sydney.
More than 80 percent of this growth will happen just outside of Brisbane,
while at the same time 45 percent of job growth will occur in the Brisbane` metropolitan area.
This means that jobs are continuing to sprout up in the city while people are moving to suburbs
surrounding it. There is a vital need for better public transportation between both.
At the moment the stations really are adjacent to the CBD, so that means the travelling public have
to walk about ten, 15 minutes really to get to the centre of the CBD from the railway stations.
Not to mention these new stations will link up with the Olympic stadium,
transporting the millions of expected tourists in 2032.
But building under a major metropolitan
area is no easy feat and the engineering challenges themselves have been immense.
When you see it up close and personal, it is an engineering marvel.
It's almost like doing open heart surgery in the middle of the CBD, digging an excavation
down about 50 meters below the CBD. That is, to get below all of the services,
get below the footings of the current high rise office buildings and so forth. So it's
actually the deepest hole ever dug in Brisbane and we're putting the station
into that because the tunnels have to weave their way underneath the middle of the city.
The tunnel boring machines do what they had to do
to get under the river. The rock is very hard. They just ate it up.
The Albert Street station sits 31 metres below the heart of the city – and in such
a densely packed area every bit of space counts.
That’s where these mezzanines come in. They make use of these massive tunnels
by creating a pedestrian level directly above the train tracks.
Now, mezzanines aren’t anything new,
but the way these ones are being built is new with this segmental bridge technique.
That's a pretty common practice for building bridges above ground … but
constructing something like this in a tunnel underground is a whole new challenge.
Here’s how they’re doing it.
Each mezzanine beam is precast in massive concrete segments weighing up to 70 tonnes.
They’re then lowered down through this hold in the
heart of the city into tunnels that will become the new train station.
Because an underground tunnel is a lot more cramped than a wide open
space above ground … equipment was custom made to fit the site.
Next those three segments are connected into one single beam which is picked up,
rotated 90 degrees and placed onto the cavern arches to form the mezzanine level.
This was all made possible thanks to the early
integration of a digital twin of the entire project.
It’s essentially a virtual version of the Cross River Rail using software from Bentley.
It was even first-person navigable, just like a video game.
The model is so detailed that those on site can use the BIM model in real
time essentially as an X-ray to see behind walls or what’s beneath them.
It also meant other future projects in the city
could access the model and plan around the new stations to the millimetre.
The digital twin meant that engineering and construction
decisions could be made quickly and efficiently, reducing overall costs.
Design flaws could be spotted and fixed before they even became a problem,
while progress of the entire project could be seen from every angle as it happened.
The model will be is already being used to train future drivers as well as to
update members of the public and brief ministers and the premier. Specialist
needs and disability groups are also using the model to ensure accessibility.
Once the project is constructed the digital twin will also help run the rail and will
be used by operation and maintenance service providers.
when we started out on doing our 3D modeling,
which we see as one of the things that we're very proud of.
There was no single solution that was actually going to give us what we want.
Bentley Project Wise,provided the common data environment,
which is the platform that we're using now And really they've been able to help us, adapt. And
as we've evolved the the project and the model Bentley have been part of that journey with us.
Cross River Rail is now well on its way to being delivered. Early works began
in August 2017 and major contractors commenced construction in late 2019.
The project is set to open in 2026, well ahead of the 2032 Olympics.
Using the Olympics as a means of a catalyst for that type of activity,
you know, is a really positive thing.
We need to be Olympics ready.
The next decade is going to see phenomenal changes for Brisbane and South East Queensland, and
those changes are starting right now.
This video was sponsored by Bentley, you can learn more about how they’re
enabling projects like this at the link below.
There’s also the chance to dive deeper on this and the other topics on our channel
over on The World’s Best Construction Podcast – available now wherever you get your podcasts.
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