Cross River Rail Minister Kate Jones today announced more than 1000 people are hard at work on Queensland’s largest infrastructure project.
The 1000th worker has been identified as a female engineer who came home to Brisbane to work on Cross River Rail after working interstate on another large infrastructure project.
“This government’s number one priority is to create jobs. Already we’ve got 1000 workers on site but we’re just warming up – this project will create around 7700 construction jobs including 450 opportunities for apprentices and trainees,” Ms Jones said.
The 1000th worker on the project is Maija Bicevskis, a project engineer who has returned home to Queensland specifically to work on Cross River Rail and is working for CPB in the Rail, Integration and Systems Alliance.
Ms Bicevskis said she began the process to get herself transferred home from Melbourne as soon as Cross River Rail was announced.
“It’s great to be back in Brisbane, working on a project that is going to change my hometown for the better and really help me develop in my career.”
Ms Bicevskis, who also has links to the Lia Pootah people in Tasmania and is a graduate of QUT said; “I chose to go into electrical engineering because I always enjoyed maths and science subjects at school, and engineering seemed like a practical application of the subjects I liked.
“Now I work on designing and implementing the cable carrying system, which will help Cross River Rail trains to join back into the rail network near Bowen Hills.
“This project has given me a way into the rail construction industry which I hadn’t worked in before. This will give me more opportunities and options by the end of the project.”
Cross River Rail Minister Kate Jones said Ms Bicevskis’ story showed just how important Cross River Rail was in providing career-defining opportunities for young people.
“We’re very proud to mark this defining milestone by welcoming Maija to the Cross River Rail team to work on what is a truly transformative project,” she said.
“Not only are we making it quicker and easier to travel right throughout southeast Queensland, we’re creating unique job opportunities for the next generation of Queensland workers.”
