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September 18, 2012

Is a Melbourne Airport Rail Link Finally Ready For Take-Off?

Filed under: Buildings,Civil — Tags: , , — tom @ 1:49 am

art melbourne airport concept

There are plenty of reasons why Melbourne was rated ‘most liveable’ city in the world for the second straight year. Its score of 97.5 per cent in the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey was close to the perfect score, with the city only docked points for climate, culture and petty crime.

When looking at the transport picture, however, it seems strange that it did not lose points for infrastructure. One of the biggest downsides to Victoria’s capitalis in the lack of a convenient connection from the airport to the city; when one compares Melbourne to the other great cities on the EIU list, this is a glaring omission. Tourists and business travellers alike have noted this lack of transport between the city proper and its airport.

There has been endless debate over the real need, viability and sustainability of a Melbourne Airport Link but it appears now that the idea is closer to reality than before.

Although the plans are only in the concept stage, Melbourne Airport chief executive Chris Woodruff is hopeful that a new plan to consider the future demand for access to the airport will be given the green light by the Victorian government.

Planned improvements could bring about the realisation of a transport hub for private cars, taxis, SkyBus, public buses and – finally – the long-awaited airport link train station.

The initial plans suggest that traffic congestion might be eased with the building of an elevated road funnelling airport traffic into a multi-storey, multi-modal transport hub situated away from the main terminal.

The rail link study, which will assess the feasibility of such a move, is highly anticipated. There have been studies and examination on that issue before that have, ultimately, come to nothing. The new study will look to learn from these while taking into account current data on population, transport use and the needs of the growing city.

woodruff

The possibility of installing a rail link was debated first debated back in the 1960s, but little progress was made.

It wasn’t until 2001 that the state government once again gave the idea serious consideration as part of the Linking Victoria programme. Although two options were put forward, market research actually concluded that most passengers preferred getting to the airport by taxi or car and, with similar links in Sydney and Brisbane under-performing, there was concern as to the viability of building one in Melbourne.

On July 21, 2008, the Victorian government reaffirmed its commitment to a rail link and said that it would be considered within three to five years. In 2010, however, newly-appointed State Minister for Public Transport Martin Pakula of the Labour Party announced that the rail link had been taken off the agenda with new freeway options being explored instead.

It was only later that year, with the Liberals taking over, that the policy for the introduction of the rail link returned to the agenda.

The current proposals have been developed as part of the next phase of the larger airport master plan. Over the next five years, according to Woodruff, Melbourne Airport will spend $1 billion on airside and landside infrastructure to cope with the predicted 60 million passengers in 20 years.

The plans will be open for public comment early next year before being submitted to the federal government for approval. Many travellers flying in and out of Melbourne are certainly hoping the plans finally take off.

Urban Planning for Bicycles Hits Second Gear

Filed under: Civil — Tags: , , — tom @ 1:40 am

melbourne bicycle

Cities worldwide are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of and opportunities created by an investment in bicycle infrastructure.

This is particularly true in Australia, with the various states and cities updating their biking networks to cater to a growing need for automobile-alternative transport means.

After completing Stage One of the Melbourne Bicycle Plan, the Victorian capital is following in the footsteps of iconic European cycling cities such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam in moving towards developing a more bike-friendly metropolitan area.

The first stage of the plans ran from 2007 until 2011 and focused heavily on making initial networking upgrades and developing the foundations for new cycling infrastructure. The key focuses of that development stage were setting the groundwork for safe networks and developing greater communication with the cycling community.

melbourne bicycle

Now, moving forward with the Draft Bicycle Plan for 2012 – 2016, the city’s commitment to providing ‘safe and connected bicycle routes’ has been further solidified.

According to The City of Melbourne, cyclists’ activities are expected to grow to make up six per cent of all trips to and within the city by 2016. This will account for 15 per cent of inner city peak traffic.

Now that the foundations have been set, city council hopes to build on them with the influence and inclusion of ‘cycling innovation’ standing as the next major goal. Through the first phase of the planning, new issues and needs were identified, including work on:

▪    A number of high priority on-road cycling routes, such as La Trobe Street, Princes Bridge on Swanston Street, St Kilda Road, Elizabeth, Exhibition and Clarendon streets

▪   Other off-road routes that improve transitions from off-road to on-road paths and link precincts, such as the Yarra Trail through Alexandra Gardens and Queen Victoria Gardens to St Kilda Road, Lorimer Street to Docklands and routes around Royal Park

▪    More bicycle parking and improved end-of-trip facilities

▪    Research and bicycle safety campaigns to boost participation and monitor changes and trends.

The importance of optimising this kind of infrastructure is incredibly relevant in Melbourne, given the city’s expected substantial growth and the need for the development and encouragement of low-carbon infrastructure and public transport means.

In each of the past two years, Melbourne has been named the world’s most liveable city, and that liveability hinges on the development and support of a strong infrastructure system. In a modern world, that means optimising bicycle routes, a challenge Melbourne is certainly tackling head-on.

August 6, 2012

Has Victoria’s Rail Project Hit the Buffers?

Filed under: Civil — Tags: , , — tom @ 7:10 am

Victoria's Rail Project

A $5 billion proposed rail project that would link Melbourne’s northern and southern rail networks and include the building of five new underground stations is looking increasingly unlikely to get off the ground.

Michael Hopkins, executive director of policy and communication at the Department of Transport in Victoria said at a recent infrastructure conference that the chances of the commonwealth coming through with the funding in the lead-up to a federal election was going to be a “really tough call.”

The Victorian government is seeking $130 million through Infrastructure Australia for preliminary works to develop a new nine kilometre metropolitan rail tunnel through the heart of Melbourne. Hopkins said, however, that he could see the money that would go toward the project going elsewhere instead.

“If I was the commonwealth government…I would be spending money where I could buy the most seats,” he said.

Hopkins said Victoria had previously done very well in securing $3.8 billion for the regional rail link.

Victorian assistant treasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips already said at the Victorian Infrastructure Summit that federal government funding through the GST had been slashed by more than $6 billion and private investment for infrastructure projects in the non-mining sector had waned.

Infrastructure Australia had included stage one of the north-south rail link in its top five list of shovel-ready priority projects and had also given tentative support last month to the Baillieu government’s plans to build the controversial east-west link, a road tunnel under inner Melbourne.

The industry now waits and hopes its support will hold some sway.

While the rail link between Melbourne’s northern and southern networks had been looking likely to proceed, Infrastructure Australia showed no support for another project – the rail link to Avalon Airport. Infrastructure Australia refused to support the government’s request to finance a study and passed over a request for funding to study removing level crossings.

August 1, 2012

Expanding suburbs lead to infrastructure squeeze

Filed under: Civil — Tags: , — tom @ 11:15 pm

The Bureau of Statistics has revealed Melbourne’s outer suburbs are the fastest growing areas in the country.

South Morang in the city’s north tops the list, adding more than 32,000 residents in a decade.

It is followed by Point Cook, Caroline Springs and Tarneit in Melbourne’s west, which have each become home to 20,000 more residents.

Stephan Kozmevski, the Mayor of Whittlesea, which includes South Morang, says infrastructure in the city’s fringe has failed to keep pace with the rapid population growth.

“We need public transport, trains buses, kindergartens, schools primary and secondary, roads,” he told ABC local radio.

“Infrastructure should be provided for everyone who moves in because you need your roads and you need your public transport to exist so then the people can move in.”Expanding suburbs lead to infrastructure squeeze

$300 million community infrastructure plan for Docklands

Filed under: Civil — Tags: , , , — tom @ 12:05 am

Planning Minister Matthew Guy and Lord Mayor Robert Doyle today unveiled a plan for $300 million in community infrastructure projects in Docklands.

This follows the Planning Minister’s announcement yesterday that a new cafe, edible garden and outdoor space would be located along Harbour Esplanade. To be known as the Glass House, this temporary activation space seeks to provide the intimacy of a backyard while residents, workers and visitors to Docklands enjoy Melbourne’s premiere waterfront destination.

Alongside these projects Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said that the City of Melbourne would kick-start the restoration of the historic Alma Doepel, with a proposal for the ship to be docked at Victoria Harbour, the centrepiece in the waterfront heritage precinct.

A community boating hub, oval and sporting facilities, recreational swimming pool, library and community centre, exhibition and performance spaces, running and walking tracks, and a place of worship are some of the headline projects to be delivered in Docklands over coming years as part of the Docklands Community and Place Plan (DCPP)

Mr Guy said today’s announcement was a good example of the strong, long-term partnerships between state, local government and the private sector that are required to make urban renewal projects a success.

“This plan showcases projects that Places Victoria and the City of Melbourne, together with developers, private and public sectors, are committed to delivering for Docklands,”

“Although only 50 per cent has been developed to date, Docklands is already an economic hub, having attracted more than $8.5 billion of private investment,” Mr Guy said.

“Docklands continues to make a significant contribution to the Victorian economy

“The last year alone has seen more than $2.4 billion worth of commercial and residential development under construction across 16 projects, including more than 1,500 dwellings” Mr Guy said.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said the release of DCPP is the culmination of more than 18 months of community consultation and reflects the needs of Docklands’ evolving community.

“Coupled with the recent announcement that the City of Melbourne will be the responsible planning authority for developments less than 25,000 square metres in Docklands, this package demonstrates a transition from a development stage to one focused on the community.

“We’ve listened to thousands of residents, workers, visitors and experts, to ensure future development in Docklands meets the needs of its people, now and into the future.

“A great example of this is the new Docklands community garden. With a fire to gather around on a cold day, a range of garden beds and fruit trees, the Docklands garden provides a great new meeting place for locals and visitors.” Cr Doyle said.

For a full list of the community infrastructure initiatives to be delivered as part of the DCPP please visit: www.docklands.com

April 16, 2012

How COAG Delivered in Two Key Areas

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — tom @ 6:47 am

handshake australia

Rarely in recent memory have those involved in infrastructure in Australia had so much riding on a meeting of federal and state ministers from around the country.

Fortunately, the Council of Australian Governments meeting held last Friday did not disappoint. Rather, the meeting delivered meaningful outcomes in two key areas where business had been pushing for reform: skills and project approvals.

Start with skills. Much has been said in recent years about how infrastructure projects in Australia have been impacted by challenges in finding suitably qualified staff. Over the past six years alone, Engineers Australia’s international and national director of policy Brent Jackson warned last month, more than 20 projects had to be abandoned because of problems finding suitably qualified engineers and technicians.

To provide more financial assistance to encourage Australians to further their skills, COAG has agreed to introduce a ‘national training entitlement’ for government-subsidised training places to at least the first Certificate III qualification and encourage students to undertake higher level qualifications for government subsidised Diploma and Advanced Diploma training programs by offering income-contingent loans.

Also, to improve training standards and give better information about available training courses, training providers will be subject to independent assessments of their performance and a new ‘My Skills’ web site will provide a one-stop shop for prospective students and employers to easily find out about all courses available in their area of need.

Such reforms have been well received. Australian Industry Group Chief Executive Designate Innes Willox, for example says the agreement ‘ramps up the effort in tackling endemic skills shortages’ and ‘forges overdue reforms to our national training system’.

”The Commonwealth, States and Territories are to be congratulated for putting aside their differences to sign the agreement in order to achieve essential reforms that will underpin the development of Australia’s current and future skilled workforce” Willox says.

Faster Project Approvals

The other area where COAG came through relates to project approvals – again, an area where business has been pushing for reform.

The most significant development in this area was an agreement to fast track bilateral agreements between federal and state governments for the accreditation of state assessment and approval processes. Once these agreements are in place, with the exception of projects which affect world heritage sites or certain ‘actions’ (e.g. defence), all project approvals will be administered by a single state agency. This means that project owners will be freed from the need to gain separate approval at the federal level as well as the state level.

That matters. The current doubling up of environmental assessments at a federal and state level is inefficient and can have a significant impact upon the delivery of important infrastructure investments.

The Sturt Highway duplication project is a case in point. That project, according to South Australian Premier Jay Wetherill, was delayed by nine months because of the need for a state assessment prior to a separate commonwealth assessment being carried out – a delay which would not have occurred had it not have been for the current duplication of requirements.

The COAG statement envisions that the frameworks for all of these agreements will be finalised by the end of March next year.

By Andrew Heaton

http://designbuildsource.com.au/coag-delivered-key-areas

March 30, 2012

$100 billion Infrastructure Backlog Unacceptable

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — tom @ 12:00 am

The $100 billion infrastructure backlog is impinging on Melbourne’s productivity says Committee for Melbourne acting chief executive officer Andrea Gaffney. In order to deal with the backlog, it has been suggested that an independent, non-government body be set up, the news of which comes only days after the announcement of the state government’s reinvestment in Victoria’s public transport system.

“We believe there is a significant infrastructure backlog in Melbourne to the tune of $100 billion and that price tag has increased over the last decade” says Gaffney.

She goes on to state that the backlog of infrastructure developments not only impedes on the smooth running of the state, but could actually effect its high liveability standard.

The push for infrastructure efficiency is in light of Melbourne’s drastic population growth, which is only expected to rise. Gaffney believes that an independent body would aid in the efficiency of getting these infrastructure projects out in order to effect long term goals.

“We believe the development of a plan should be looking out to the next 50 years. It should be long-term aspirational and not just necessarily looking out to the next 10 years or thereabouts” Gaffney says.

Backing these sentiments is executive board member for the Committee for Melbourne. He is pushing for the body to improve long-term planning by the government, rather than simply appeasing voters in the now.

“What we need is an all-party commitment to a long-term commitment for the city, so it’s a vision that sustains itself beyond the electoral cycle,” says Fricke, “we’ve got a lot of short-term thinking; we’d like to see some long-term thinking”.

A meeting will be commence shortly, by which a proposal for the independent infrastructure body may be presented.

March 29, 2012

Engineer Shortage Means Lost Opportunities

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — tom @ 11:57 pm

A shortage of engineers is hampering Australia’s ability to deliver on infrastructure and nation building needs, leading to millions of dollars in cost overruns and lost opportunities for engineering projects which have not gone ahead, an industry group says.

Speaking at a public hearing in Perth as part of a Senate Inquiry into the Shortage of Engineering and Related Employment Skills, Engineers Australia’s international and national director of policy Brent Jackson said Australia needs to address the engineering skills shortage as a matter of urgency.

“Australia produces less than half of its current annual engineering workforce needs,” Jackson says. “Even with Australian universities and TAFEs producing around 9,000 graduates annually, Australia is still unable to provide a reliable domestic solution to these key shortages.”

Jackson says engineering shortages have led to huge losses due to cost overruns and many more lost opportunities for infrastructure and sustainable development. He adds that over the past six years alone, more than 20 projects had to be abandoned because of problems finding suitably qualified staff.

Despite his concerns, Jackson applauds efforts on the part of the Department of Infrastructure and Transport with regard to the creation of the National Infrastructure Construction Schedule (NICS), a national database of planned infrastructure investments. Jackson says this will bring greater transparency to infrastructure scheduling and delivery and make it easier for the profession to plan projects and identify areas where more engineers are needed.

He says, however, that further reform to strengthen the profession is necessary, with careful workforce planning and career initiatives needed to attract highly skilled individuals – especially women – to the profession.

“As well, it’s important that reforms through the COAG of the seamless national economy progress by supporting a nationally consistent system of registration for engineers,” Jackson says. “This will help us deploy engineers of consistently high standard to wherever they are needed most.”

The need to encourage more women the enter the engineering field in particular has long been recognised by policy makers and is seen as a necessary step if Australia is to develop the skills it needs to meet the infrastructure requirements of the coming decade. Earlier this year, 23-year-old engineering student Marita Cheng was awarded the Young Australian of the Year for her efforts in promoting the profession as a career path to young girls in secondary schools across the country.

February 27, 2012

Solar Powered Transport Infrastructure on the Horizon

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — tom @ 11:16 pm

solar sailor in hong kong

While green building is running rampant through this industry, it has as yet to truly take hold of infrastructure work. Green engineering efforts are growing, but it is perhaps the fact that our engineers are busy creating green technologies for buildings that has limited their implementation in infrastructure.

Both infrastructure and its associated public transport vehicles, are some of the highest carbon emitters worldwide. And efforts to reduce global carbon emissions could be greatly spurred if further developments that focus on greening up this sector were undertaken.

Developments like Hong Kong’s Solar Eagle.

Created by Australian company, Solar Sailor, this ferry, in addition to another three vessels and some incredibly positive future planned work; rely on hybrid energy, with the renewable element acquired from solar panels located on the ferry’s roof.

This pioneering project is a global first. The way in which this innovative technology works, is that the renewable energy sourced from the sun through the solar panels, is stored into a battery that the engine uses when coasting in out of the harbour. The hybrid factor comes into play as the ferry heads out to the ocean, where the more powerful diesel-powered motor takes over.

solar sailor with solar panels

The design differs for each of the boats in the fleet. While the Solar Eagle features rooftop solar panels, the Solar Albatross features the slightly more standardised (and likely to be further copied) solar sails. These not only take in energy from the sun, but also store wind energy.

While these earlier designs have been implemented on island hoppers, what is truly exciting is the company’s future plans to apply a solar sail to bulk carriers. Bulk carriers are instrumental in trade and shipping worldwide, and one of the final frontiers for renewable energy implementation.

Solar Sailor founder Robert Dane believes that the environmental savings are just as prevalent as the economic.

“The systems we are installing are worth around AUD$6 million and therefore the return on investment would be a couple of years at the current oil price” he says.

solar sailor

In fact, these sails have been predicted to save on fuel prices for the giant barges by 20-40%, which sits in the million dollar saving price range. Not only that, it is an incredible way for our carbon-emitting but economically vital, natural resource sector to reduce its environmental impact.

Slow and steady steps seem to be the way in this sector. However, it is important to remember that due to the size of the works that the engineering sector undertakes, and its associated carbon emission problems, any green changes will pack a much harder punch.

Images Courtesy Solar Sailor

By Tim Moore – http://designbuildsource.com.au/solar-powered-transport-infrastructure-horizon