Infrastructure and Emergency Management Committee Chairperson Councillor Cheryl Bromage said step one, the Strategic Business Case, began with confirmation of the ‘problem’ and ended with a number of initiatives to be considered for further development and analysis.
“The purpose of the Strategic Business Case is to ensure that a wide range of initiatives are considered and assessed by council instead of immediately concluding that new infrastructure is required,” she said.
Council is following the State Government’s Project Assurance Frameworkin the development of the business case to ensure a rigorous process to gain full support from the government.
Cr Bromage said council and government agreed that the ‘problem’ is broadly congestion in the city centre restricting revitalisation and economic development; the single city centre Bremer River crossing compromising connectivity, population growth and broader economic growth; lack of capacity and service life of the existing David Trumpy Bridge; and the threat to the traffic network from incidents or major events such as floods.
“These initiatives will be prioritised in the early stages of step two, the Preliminary Business Case, to determine their viability for further consideration and the top initiatives will be investigated in more detail,” Cr Bromage said.
“The purpose of the Preliminary Business Case is to assess the identified initiatives and recommend an option to be taken forward for detailed assessment in step three, the Detailed Business Case.
“The Preliminary Business Case is to be supported by technical assessments such as traffic modelling, economic analysis, social impact assessments and environmental assessments.”
The Preliminary Business Case is expected to take about six months to complete.