New CEO Garcia work cut out but funds pledged to help him do it
Delivering an integrated freight strategy is among the top concerns of Infrastructure Tasmania (ITas), CEO Allan Garcia has confirmed
Garcia, the former Local Government Association CEO who took his new position in March, has outlined his organisation’s priority work plan that takes in tasks for the next 12 months.
The freight strategy draft is to be available in the last quarter of the year and work on it is to begin on September 30 after the organisation is set up and new infrastructure governance arrangements for project bids are in place.
In tandem with the strategy, ITas will work on a methodology for assessing and prioritising infrastructure proposals and a report on the Hobart light rail project’s preferred progress.
To be completed in March are a report on the Bridgewater bridge north of Hobart, a state roads audit and a draft project pipeline.
An ongoing focus will be the Midland Highway duplication strategy, a project that appears likely to continue for a decade.
The present Bridgewater bridge, north of Hobart, remains something of a choke point at the southern end of the Midland Highway
“ITas was established to ensure a coordinated, state-wide approach to the planning and delivery of infrastructure,” infrastructure minister Rene Hidding says.
“This is about having the right infrastructure built at the right time, in the right place, and as efficiently as possible.”
Hidding adds that the strategy is “underpinned by a $1.806 billion investment to deliver the infrastructure Tasmania needs”.