Probuild is due to begin excavation work within weeks on the largest inner-city hole in Queensland as work continues on the $3 billion world-class Queen’s Wharf project.

About 450,000 cubic metres of soil and rock will be removed over the next two years to produce a 26m deep pit with a perimeter of more than half a kilometre in the Brisbane CBD.

The pit will be dug where the Executive Building, 80A George St building, and the Neville Bonner Building used to be, and underneath a section of William St between those sites.

Probuild was awarded the excavation and shoring works package for the development late last year, and has since undertaken demolition works.

It is carrying out piling work and construction of a diaphragm wall this month, ready for excavation work due to begin in May.

Probuild Queensland managing director Jeff Wellburn said the basement excavation, only metres from the Brisbane River, required construction of a concrete diaphragm wall almost a metre thick.

This would embed into the rock five basement levels down from Queens Wharf Rd, to hold the river back from the excavation, he said.

Soldier piles are being installed on three faces of the excavation, with soil anchors, mesh and concrete shotcrete stabilising the walls as the excavation gets deeper.

The estimated soil and rock to be excavated from the basement is just under half a million cubic metres of tight material with an estimated 45,000 truck movements required.

When complete, Queen’s Wharf Brisbane will feature five new hotels, 50 new restaurants, bars and cafes, 12 football fields of public space, an upgraded bikeway, a new pedestrian bridge, a 1500-seat ballroom, casino and an open-air cinema.

Multiplex was recently announced as the successful contractor to undertake construction of Waterline Park and the Goodwill Bridge Extension area, which takes in the Bicentennial Bikeway and Mangrove Walk, as part of the development.

Destination Brisbane Consortium project director Simon Crooks said the group expected to go to tender later this year for the next immediate phase of the project – construction.

The core of the Queens Wharf Brisbane integrated resort development is due for completion in 2022.

View timelapse footage of March siteworks here: https://queenswharfbrisbane.com.au/gallery-types/timelapse/#&gid=1&pid=1