The first stage of Arup’s $950m light rail system for the Queensland city of Gold Coast was opened to the public on Sunday. The 13km development will run along the sea front and link the suburbs of Parklands and Broadbeach; it will have 16 stations, one of which will be underground.
Arup was the lead design consultant for the project’s client, the GoldLinQ consortium, which includes Bombardier Transportation. It was built as a PPP.
Murray Kretschmer, Queensland Infrastructure Leader at Arup, said: "We’re incredibly proud to be involved in delivering Queensland’s first light rail system – a transformational project for the Gold Coast that will change the way people move around in one of the country’s most vibrant and diverse cities."
Sarah McIntosh, Arup’s project manager, said: "Technically, it has been a difficult project owing to its unique site location in a highly constrained area and the challenging ground conditions."
Gold Coast, which is 94km south of the state capital of Brisbane, has a population of 590,000, and an economy that is heavily dependent on tourism.Â
Arup also worked on the planning of a light rail system for the Sunshine Coast in south-east Queensland and a light rail project in Sydney.
Arup has recently helped build the world’s first tower made from mushrooms. The company may face a class action lawsuit over Australian toll-road ‘fiasco‘.
