Latest report from the Stop the Hale Street Bridge Coalition:

BACKGROUND BRIEFING - distributed in response to Lord Mayor's statements (19 August)

Read about how Newman has been caught out fudging the facts again...

Trevor Rowe is chairman of the BrisConnections consortium who are preparing to build Airport Link but he is also chair of the Queensland Investment Corporation, a state-owned funds manager the manages the superannuation funds of Queensland Public Servants. The Queensland Investment Corporation have bought into Airport Link and have already lost a lot of money as a result. Perhaps if you're a public servant in Queensland you should be concerned about whether your money is really going into good investments. Read an article about this topic from the Courier Mail below:

Tony Grant-Taylor and James McCullough

Download our presentation here http://brisbanept.typepad.com/brisbane_public_transport/files/CASTSouthWestAccessPlan.pdf

Presented Thursday 7 August it outlines the road building agenda proposed by federal, state and local government in the south-west of Brisbane, and outlines a far superior alternative plan which addresses the social, economic and environmental needs of the SEQ region.

The Australian Financial Review has reported ('Toll-road punters go into reverse' 1.8.08 p.76 by Alan Jury) that 11% of units were dumped at 41 cents (from initial unit cost of $1) when Brisconnections made its debut on the Australian Stock Exchange. Given the inflated traffic projections and under estimates of construction costs associated with these projects it would not be suprising if Brisconnections performs as poorly as RiverCity Motorway Consortium (building the North South Bypass Tunnel). In 2012 when the Airport Link is meant to be complete it is unlikely that Brisbane people will be driving as much as we are now regardless of how much road infrastructure is built. Where are your super funds being invested?

Follow this link to the Australian stock exchange website and see the huge ongoing drop in share prices for the consortium building Brisbane's North South Bypass Tunnel:

http://www.asx.com.au/asx/research/CompanyInfoSearchResults.jsp?searchBy=asxCode&allinfo=on&asxCode=RCY#chart

Is your super fund investing in Rivercity motorway?

Given the global oil situation and its impact on transport use and construction costs it would be interesting to know what the long term predictions are for this consortium.

Premier Anna Bligh is yet to reply to our email regarding the congestion impacts of Hale Street Bridge. Her electorate office has advised that people contact the Premier's department directly to follow up the inquiry. Please give the Premier's office a call on 3224 4500 and ask why she supports increased congestion in her electorate and inner Brisbane.

The Greens will be hosting the Northern Link Tunnel Community Forum at 7:30pm on Thursday the 7th of August at the Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology (formerly Toowong College) on Bywong St, Toowong. We have invited the Member for Mt Coot-tha, Mr Fraser and Councillor Matic.

A link to the Facebook event: http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=19688269450

Premier Anna Bligh must not allow Brisbane City Council to have tolling powers over the Hale Street Bridge. The impact statement for the Bridge shows that it will create massive increases in traffic in her electorate compared with a "no bridge". For example traffic on Cordelia will increase by more than 110% with the bridge, compared with only 50% with no bridge. Refer to the attached file for more information. Community Action for Sustainable Transport (CAST) are proposing an alternative that will actually reduce traffic on the south side. Key initiatives proposed include increased train frequencies on the Beenleigh and Cleveland lines, major bikeway and bike lane expansions and transit priority for buses travelling in from the outer-south.

Refer attached graph which summarises data from the Airport Link EIS traffic and transport technical paper

The North South Bypass Tunnel construction consortium LBB has asked for approval to move spoil along Kingsford Smith Drive, Nudgee Road and Lamington Avenue, Hamilton on Sundays. Residents surrounding Airport Link and Norther Link beware - the construction management guidelines for these projects can be changed to suit business.