Olympic venue delivery partner announced, as Victoria Park testing wraps up

The Brisbane 2032 Olympics have a new delivery partner, with the Unite32 consortium of AECOM and Laing O’Rourke appointed on Wednesday to oversee and manage the delivery of 17 Games venues.

The announcement came as the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority revealed it had almost completed the geotechnical examination of Victoria Park to determine the location of the planned 63,000-seat main Olympic stadium.

GIICA chief executive Simon Crooks said a report from that work would be ready in early January, but that did not mean the authority would immediately decide on the stadium’s location within the 64-hectare park.

“The reason for that is, hopefully within the next two or three weeks ... we’ll have an architect, and I want to make sure the architect is part of that decision,” he said.

But Crooks said there was “nothing scary” from an engineering viewpoint about the geotechnical evidence GIICA had seen so far.

Announcing Unite32’s successful tender at the site of the planned Moreton Bay Indoor Sports Centre at Petrie, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the tier-one design and construction management consortium would bring expertise gained from the London, Paris and Los Angeles Games to Brisbane.

“The delivery partner works with GIICA, so GIICA then doesn’t have to go and employ hundreds of workers – they actually utilise existing resources in these companies,” he said.

“They also utilise the expertise and skills and bring the Olympic and Paralympics expertise from previous Games – experiences that may work well, or may not work well.”

Crooks said the delivery partners would be embedded within the authority’s Brisbane office. He expected about 60 workers from the consortium would start in the GIICA office next month.

Consortium member AECOM is also the delivery partner for Los Angeles 2028.

AECOM Australia chief executive Mark McManamny said the biggest lesson they could bring from previous Games was ensuring a legacy was left behind for the population.

“For Queensland, in this instance, it’s not just about the delivery of the Games themselves – it’s actually about the impact that the infrastructure will have on communities long term,” he said.

“The lesson is making sure that, one, we’re Games-ready – you do not get an extra day to deliver the Games, they happen when they happen.

“Secondly, it’s making sure that once the Games have occurred, those assets are then valuable to the community, and that there’s an ongoing legacy that’s provided for everyone who’s been part of it.”

Neither Crooks nor Bleijie would disclose the cost of the contract, both only saying that it was within the available budget.

“I have an overall budget within the $7.1 [billion],” Crooks said. “The 7.1 isn’t under threat.”

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