Contract signals next step in Inland Rail engineering from Narromine to Narrabri
Communities will have another opportunity to feed into the design of Inland Rail with the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) awarding a $13.5 million contract for feasibility design work for the Narromine to Narrabri section in NSW.
July 2, 2018
The contract awarded to JacobsGHD IR Joint Venture will build on extensive preliminary investigations and community engagement that has already been conducted.
Inland Rail Chief Executive Officer, Richard Wankmuller said that the scope of work for this phase of the program is designed to help ensure communities could input into the overall design and approval process and to help the community understand how they can share in the benefits of the project.
“Local residents, landowners and surrounding communities are keen to know more about Inland Rail from an engineering and design perspective. The feasibility design is the next step in that process,” Mr Wankmuller said.
“This important feasibility design work will give us critical information in terms of engineering, environmental, traffic flows, socio-economic impacts and benefits and other areas of interest.
“It will lay the groundwork for the detailed design for this section and help identify how we can adjust to address community concerns.”
Mr Wankmuller said all sections of Inland Rail through NSW, QLD and Victoria were now in either feasibility or detailed design phase. “As Inland Rail moves towards the construction phase, residents and local businesses will increasingly see the benefits of Inland Rail, including the jobs and new investment opportunities it will create,” he said.
“Farmers and regional communities, big and small, will benefit by better connecting produce to domestic and international markets and we continue to work closely with them and are grateful for their feedback.”
Alongside the feasibility design, Inland Rail continues to work closely across various touch points with the community. Community information sessions will also be held over the coming months for land and business owners and residents to participate and share their input into Inland Rail.
These information sessions are in addition to the Community Consultative Committee (CCC) meetings which are to commence for this project section.
To find a community information session, or to learn more about Inland Rail contact 1800 732 761 or visit www.inlandrail.artc.com.au.
Media contact: Leah Dymus 0405 160 459
Background
The next step for Inland Rail between Narromine and Narrabri will be to lodge an application for the project to be declared State Significant Infrastructure and the issuing by the NSW Government of the requirements for Inland Rail’s assessment of the environmental, social and economic impacts and benefits of the project.
This process will take between 18 and 24 months during which landowners and communities will have many formal and informal opportunities to comment upon, and provide valuable input to, the project
