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Work has begun on a $500 million rail project to expand coal export
capacity to enable rail freight carrier QR Limited to meet growing
global demand for coal.
The $500 million upgrade of the Jilalan
rail yard will lift the capacity of the maintenance and service area by
more than 40 percent. According to QR Limited, the project will give a
vital boost to the coal supply chain in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.
QR Chief Executive Officer Lance Hockridge says the project will
result in two new bypass tracks, two provisioning tracks and a wagon
maintenance facility. Furthermore, he says there will be provisions for
a third bypass track, while modifications will be made to the existing
maintenance yard and tracks.
"This is about meeting the future
needs of our customers as the massive growth in export demand for coal
continues," Hockridge says.
Earth works are currently underway,
with bulldozers levelling the QR site. The multi-million dollar project
is expected to be completed by December 2009.
A combination of
companies will deliver the project, with QR’s Coal Stream Alliance
working with Macmahon Holdings, MVM Rail, Connell Wagner and Hatch and
Parsons Brinkerhoff.
Hockridge says bulldozers will move more
than one million cubic metres of earth – about the size of the
Melbourne Cricket Ground.
"More than 300 people will be working
on the project, the scale of which exceeds anything previously seen in
the area, "Hockridge says.
"The upgrade will increase the capacity of the yard from 92 million tonnes per annum to 130."
Source - Supply Chain Review May 29th 2008 - http://www.supplychainreview.com.au/article.cfm?StoryID=35164&SiloID=0
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