The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) has appointed Australian owned contractor Martinus as the preferred contractor for the delivery of the rail corridor programme for Inland Rail sections in New South Wales and Southern Queensland.
ARTC and Martinus will work together to develop the strategies “to manage supply and logistics for large quantities of long-lead time construction materials,” ARTC Inland Rail Interim Chief Executive Rebecca Pickering said.
The construction materials include almost a million concrete sleepers, 1.7 million tonnes of ballast and approximately 80,000 tonnes of steel for the tracks.
“The work will involve the delivery of above-ground works, which includes track construction, rail welding, transport of materials, and the installation and commissioning of level crossings,” Rebecca Pickering explained.
The contract on the rail corridor programme includes 574.5 km of which 464.7 km of greenfield track and 109.8 km of exiting rail. The line, representing project’s largest greenfield sections, will link Narromine and Moree in New South Wales and North Star (New South Wales) to Gowrie in Queensland. The track construction is expected to be completed in 2024.
Rail sections:
Narromine to Narrabri – 306 km
Narrabri to North Star Phase 2 – 13.5 km
North Star to Border – 39 km
Border to Gowrie – 207 km
Following the approvals providing by the New South Wales, Queensland and Australian governments, the major construction will begin.
At the peak of work, Martinus will employ approximately 600 people, directly supporting the Inland Rail project. “The award of works marks a significant step for the Australian owned contractor and is keen to work with local business and suppliers to help deliver this generational project hand-in-hand with ARTC,” Martinus Chief Executive Treaven Martinus said.
ARTC has signed more than 1,300 contracts for Inland Rail, 600 of which in Queensland and 700 in the New South Wales, totalling AUD 1.9 billion (USD 1.35 billion). In 2020, 84 per cent of ARTC’s spend was concluded with small Australian-owned businesses.
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