The construction of the Cross River Rail underground station at Albert Street in Brisbane’s CBD has reached a major milestone as its completion makes it the first new train station in the city area in over 120 years.
Crews have made significant progress underground, completing the mezzanine level — where people will take the final escalators down onto the station platform — and the platform itself.
Both milestones represent significant feats of engineering as the mezzanine level is made up of 183 pre-cast concrete beams, each up to 19 metres wide and weighing up to 70 tonnes.
In addition, the 220-metre-long platform is made up of 368 precast culverts, each weighing 6.5 tonnes.
Every single piece of the station had to be lowered into the cavern down a 31-metre-deep access shaft.
Escalators are due to arrive on site and preparation works are underway for tracks to be laid in the station cavern over the coming months.
While tracks are being laid, crews will also start installing platform screen doors.
QLD Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Trade and Investment Cameron Dick said: “By 2036 more than 67,000 people will travel through the Albert Street Station each day, as it becomes the main pedestrian feeder point for QUT’s Gardens Point campus, the parliamentary precinct, Queen’s Wharf, the upgraded Eagle Street business district and the City Botanic Gardens.”