Words by President of the Government on visit to works on tunnel built by consortium with Spanish participation

Mr Premier of the State of Queensland, Campbell Newman, representatives of the City Council of Brisbane, representatives of the Federal Government, directors and staff of building companies, ladies and gentlemen,

It gives me great satisfaction to be able to visit the works on the Legacy Way tunnel today, being executed by the consortium Transcity, with the participation of a local company, an Italian company and a Spanish company - Acciona Infraestructuras.

The project is being executed within the time schedule set and I trust that as from May next year the tunnel will considerably contribute towards helping free up the traffic on part of the outskirts of the city of Brisbane. Legacy Way has already won several international awards and deservedly so.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Premier of Queensland, Campbell Newman, for the trust he placed in the consortium Transcity and, more specifically, in the Spanish company Acciona when he was Mayor of this city, for the construction works of this emblematic project, in addition to his kind words about Spain.

This construction project will allow the city to considerably improve the flow of traffic and back its claim as the Australian city with the best infrastructure. Meanwhile, Spanish infrastructure companies, such as Acciona, who strive to carry out projects throughout the world, can also demonstrate their great technical capacity.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Many of the major international infrastructure companies can presently be found in Australia, including many Spanish companies. Thanks to the technical efficiency they offer, together with the advanced technology, their new management methods and experience in public-private financing, the healthy new competition between international companies in the Australian market will enable the major public works programmes pending in this country to be developed in the coming years to the benefit of all involved.

I wanted to end my words by congratulating the companies responsible for the excellent work and once again thank all those responsible for municipal, regional and federal institutions for their presence here today, in particular Premier Campbell Newman, without whose decision to select the successful consortium when he was mayor, we would probably not have had the opportunity to be here today.

I thank you, once again, for giving me this opportunity to visit these works on this extraordinary tunnel and I urge you to continue working to conclude these works successfully so that it will soon be possible to enjoy the enormous benefits which it will undoubtedly offer this great city of Brisbane. I repeat that it is a great honour for me to be here today, I am very grateful and I wish all of you that form part of this wonderful country of Australia the very best of luck.

Thank you very much.