Well, yesterday it was doctors and nurses that Queensland wanted – today there’s good news on the construction front.

Leighton / Abigroup have been chosen as the preferred tenderers to build Brisbane’s $1.88 billion motorway upgrade and the new Gateway Bridge.

Construction work should begin by the end of the year. The builders are going to build a new Gateway Bridge 50 metres east of the existing bridge and upgrade 20 kilometres of the Gateway Motorway between Mount Gravatt and Nudgee.

More than 5,000 jobs will be created during the four-and-a-half year construction period. The government is estimating a flow-on into the local economy of $450 million in wages and salaries.

To help meet the cost of the project, tolling on both the new and existing bridges will continue for 30 years after the works are completed.

In 2011, the toll to use the bridge – collected electronically – is expected to be $3.10. rather than the $2.20 if the Federal government had supported the project.