It’s game on for towers

Projects to stay on track despite road closures

MORE than $2 billion worth of tower projects rising on the city’s Glitter Strip will continue to rise during the Commonwealth Games.

Road closures will come into effect in the weeks before the Games begin but the developers behind the Ruby and 89-storey Spirit towers say they have no plans to down tools.

Despite major road closures affecting much of Surfers Paradise Ralan Group boss William O’Dwyer said the first tower of the $1 billion Ruby complex would continue to take shape.

“We will certainly not be downing tools during the Games and in fact we have actually done some very effective planning and anticipated what would happen during this period,” he said.

“There will be some restrictions in terms of delivery of materials but we have been fortunate enough to anticipate these restrictions so we got a lot of stuff delivered early which will allow us to continue working internally.

“We are on track from a construction point of view with construction due to be completed in late September.”

The final fit-out of the tower is expected to follow before it opens ahead of Christmas.

Work on the remaining three towers of the integrated resort will begin in early 2019 which will see the closure of the Paradise Resort.

The $1.2 billion Spirit tower will rise on the Surfers Paradise Esplanade and once completed will be the city’s tallest building.

Work is continuing below ground to build the complex foundation and diaphragm wall before the tower itself is constructed on top.

Project spokesman Jordan Hickey said road closures and delays had been anticipated for the Commonwealth Games period and factored into the development’s schedule.

“What it means for us is that we will have limited deliveries during that time and will have to scale back the work but we are happy to do it and have long planned for it,” he said.

“Our guys will do what they can but will not have a lot of trucks coming in or out but otherwise it will be business as usual.

“Moving forward we will continue the geotechnical foundation works before a main works tender competition is held.”

Spirit is expected to be completed in 2020 and will reach a height of 297m