While stadiums and athletes’ villages may grab the headlines, it’s the supporting infrastructure – the roads, transport, utilities and public spaces – that will quietly carry the weight of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympic Games. It’s these enablers that will tie the Brisbane 2032 Games together and get the city and region ready to welcome the world.
For government stakeholders tasked with planning, funding and delivering this crucial backbone infrastructure, the challenge will be coordinating an enormous program of work across multiple agencies, contractors and timelines, all within the fixed deadline of the Games.
In this fourth article of our series, we focus on the complexities of delivering the transport and utilities networks that will underpin the Games. These systems may not draw the same headlines as new stadiums, but history shows they can make or break the Olympic experience.
So many moving parts
Supporting infrastructure for a Games program is not one project – it is hundreds of interconnected activities. For Brisbane, the list includes the Direct Sunshine Coast Rail Line (Beerwah to Caloundra, Stage 1), the Wave – Sunshine Coast Transit Corridor, the Inner North Transport Corridor (INTOC) enhancements, South Bank interchange and cultural precinct upgrades, and the complex integration of Brisbane Metro with Cross River Rail. When this is overlaid with the need to upgrade renewable energy systems and invest in water, wastewater and flood resilience infrastructure, the result is a vast and fragmented delivery picture.
Each of these projects has its own timelines, stakeholders and risks. Without proper coordination, overlaps, duplications and gaps can easily emerge. London 2012 faced a similar challenge – weaving together £17 billion of transport upgrades, from high-speed ‘Javelin’ trains to the Docklands Light Railway extension. Paris 2024 focused on spreading investment across metro expansions, tram upgrades, and an unprecedented 415 km of new cycleways.
What’s needed is a bird’s-eye view of costs across the whole program to ensure everything lines up and to avoid nasty surprises. With a whole-of-program lens, interdependencies, duplications, efficiencies and risks can be tracked across agencies, packages and precincts. This gives a single source of truth – and more visibility and control for decision makers.
Competition is everywhere
The atmosphere of competition isn’t only on the track. Brisbane’s Olympic works are entering an already overheated southeast Queensland construction market, where major road, rail and energy projects are all competing for the same contractors, materials and labour. London 2012 battled with Crossrail, while Paris 2024 contended with the Grand Paris Express mega-metro. Brisbane’s equivalent crunch will be the collision of Olympic works with the region’s record transport and energy pipeline.
Tender prices will rise, supply chains will stretch, and lead times will lengthen. This is where smart procurement can be the difference between control and chaos. London used an Olympic Route Network to control flows and avoid gridlock. Paris leaned into bundled procurement and rapid-response coordination to keep services running even amid arson attacks on its rail lines.
Great timing needs to be matched with the right technique. Securing resources in a constrained and competitive market may need a range of interventions – including bundling strategies, early contractor involvement (ECI), or framework agreements to navigate market pressure.
Does faster always mean pricier?
When the clock’s ticking, costs usually go up. Naturally, extended shifts, overtime, express approvals and fast-tracked designs all add to the bill when everyone is racing to the same hard deadline of the opening ceremony. The usual result of delivery pressure is having to pay a premium, and it can add significantly to the ultimate bottom line.
Could there be smarter sequencing and delivery options that better balance time, cost, and risk across the range of infrastructure in the pipeline? Should the South Bank Interchange be delivered in one compressed push, or staged to reduce disruption and cost? Should the Sunshine Coast rail line leverage modular or prefabricated methods to accelerate delivery, even at a higher upfront price?
London opted for brute-force expansion; Paris used flexible solutions such as demountable venues to manage cost and time pressures. Brisbane’s challenge will be to find its own balance of speed, cost, risk and quality. But to unlock informed, sensible decision-making, you need good information. Scenario-based modelling can help uncover whether a project could be fast-tracked at a higher cost (and what that contingency might look like) or whether the pressure could be reduced through staging delivery, using modular or prefabricated construction, or adjusting the scope and design to match available timeframes without unduly compromising key criteria.
Trade-offs among speed, cost, risk and quality shouldn’t ever be made lightly, but they can be made with a higher degree of confidence when based on real data and rigorous analysis.
Getting on with building a legacy
Getting Brisbane 2032’s supporting infrastructure right is about much more than venues and accommodation, and much longer than the short window of the Games. It’s about setting up southeast Queensland for a stronger, more connected future for generations. Roads, transport links, utilities, and enabling works will shape how the region functions long into the future.
London’s investment unlocked the regeneration of East London, with new rail lines and power tunnels supporting long-term growth. Paris went further, making sustainability and carbon reduction central, with its transport networks now the foundation of a greener, more connected city.
For Brisbane, the opportunity lies in creating a truly connected southeast Queensland. Direct Sunshine Coast Rail, INTOC, and Brisbane Metro – Cross River Rail will change how the region moves. Renewable energy integration and water/flood resilience projects will hard-wire sustainability into the Games footprint. And if designed with foresight, these projects will serve communities from Cairns to the Gold Coast long after the flame is extinguished.
The path to legacy is complex and will require significant foresight and visibility. With Brisbane’s Olympic challenge now firmly in motion, there’s never been a more critical time to plan smarter and deliver better.
This article first appeared on The Urban Developer. This is the fourth in a series of insights to navigate the hurdles on road to Brisbane 2032. Subscribe here to be notified when the next articles are published.
