New freight centre provides major link
WESTERN Australia is driving a nationwide rise in Aussies falling behind on home loan repayments.
The percentage of home loans in arrears has surged 40 per cent in WA, from 1.5 per cent of mortgages in December 2015 to 2.1 per cent a year later, a report by global ratings agency Standard & Poor’s shows.
The report looks only at loans in Australian residential mortgage- backed securities transactions, which account for about 5 per cent of all outstanding home loans, but are considered representative of the broader market. The resource- dependent states of WA and Queensland are home to eight of the 10 postcodes with the greatest portion of home loans in arrears in Australia, the S& P report said. A $ 40 MILLION expansion of rail freight group Aurizon’s activities has been completed in Townsville, supporting the city’s further development as a logistics centre for North Queensland.
Started last year, the project includes construction of a freight distribution centre, a modern container terminal, three new rail tracks specifically designed for intermodal operations, and a road link and intersection at the Stuart Bypass Road.
It has allowed Aurizon to consolidate operations at its Stuart rail yards, which were previously also at its South Yards site in Townsville’s inner city.
A spokesman for Aurizon said the intermodal project was co- located with the company’s rail operations at Stuart, providing more efficient, fitfor- purpose facilities for its business and customers.
“The design and layout of the terminal will help drive efficiencies, lift productivity and deliver improved services for our customers,” the spokesman said.
“It is strategically located in the Townsville State Development Area with connections to the key rail and road corridors for North Queensland.
“In this way, it supports Townsville’s further development as a logistics centre for North Queensland.”
The Stuart site takes advantage of key connections to the North Coast rail corridor, North West rail corridor and Stuart Bypass Road. The site provides a heavy- vehicle link between the Bruce and Flinders highways.
The spokesman said the project would remove an estimated 100 trucks a day from the Townsville CBD.
“Construction of the intersection at Stuart Bypass Road will facilitate safer traffic flow from major highways into the yards,” the spokesman said.
Features of the Stuart project include:
• Some 21,000sq m of hardstand area;
• More than 6000 cubic metres of concrete;
• More than 5km of underground electrical conduit;
• A storage area with a nameplate capacity of 280TEU ( twenty- foot equivalent) containers and a maximum of 340TEU; • A 3km access road; • More than 220,000 tonnes of fill from a local quarry;
• More than 5km of track in three roads and 13 turnouts with a turning angle to improve cycle times;
• A 100m x 45m freight distribution centre area protected by modern fire- fighting systems;
• A fuel facility integrated with Aurizon’s bulk fuel management system; and
• World War II artefacts embodied in a Heritage Wall to capture the legacy of the site.