As Australia continues to face challenges from the pandemic, infrastructure projects were key to helping us build back in 2021.
The industry continued to improve our roads, ports, railways and airports, getting on with crucial projects amid lockdowns and prolonged uncertainty about the future.
The year also brought a huge wave of new infrastructure investments, with the announcement of the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games bringing attention to Queensland’s major projects, and with airports reopening for international commercial travel for the first time in over a year.
Here, we take a look at the top five most read stories from the Infrastructure website in 2021.
In October, the Federal and New South Wales Governments called for prequalified contractors to register their interest in delivering the M1 Pacific Motorway extension to Raymond Terrace project.
The project is expected to support 2,700 jobs over its life cycle, and provide more reliable travel times between Sydney and the Queensland border.
Following the release of its 2021-22 Budget in May, the Federal Government announced $15.2 billion for infrastructure and a ten-year investment pipeline.
The funding was a key pillar of the Federal Government’s strategy to help Australia bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic, and it highlighted the major projects that would benefit from the funding.
Amid the COVID-19 Delta Variant outbreak in August, the Victorian Government introduced tougher lockdown restrictions, including additional restrictions for the construction industry.
The restrictions limited large-scale construction sites to 25 per cent site capacity or five workers per site, whichever was greater, with small-scale construction sites allowed five workers per site.
The Queensland Government prepared to start, or complete, billions of dollars worth of major road and investment upgrades in February.
Projects like the $1.5 billion second M1, $662 million Bruce Highway upgrade and $230 million Townsville Ring Road Stage 5 are expected to spark a four-year pipeline of 23,600 jobs.
In February, Infrastructure Australia released its 2021 Infrastructure Priority List, which included the addition of 44 new proposals and identified a $59 billion project pipeline of nationally-significant investment opportunities.
The Priority List is a comprehensive investment roadmap for Australia, outlining the national infrastructure needs for consideration by Australia’s governments.
