Murarrie Criterium Track
The Murarrie Criterium track is a detailed design project for Brisbane City Council. Located at the Murarrie Recreation Reserve, the project involves the upgrade of a site wide facility to be a ‘cycling hub’ for the community. The upgrade will include features such as: a new world class criterium track (road cycle racing), a double story clubhouse, a pump track, learn to ride facilities, carparking upgrades, an external signalised intersection and landscape and public space features.
The project came on the back of a successful delivery of a Criterium track at Ipswich. Designed by Bligh Tanner and opening in 2018, it has been used for local and state event races for both daytime and night-time racing. Brisbane City Council heard about the work Bligh Tanner did and engaged us for technical advice in 2020 to help with the masterplanning of the site. Following on from this masterplanning, Bligh Tanner was engaged for preliminary and detailed design of the Criterium Track and Carpark which were to be delivered in the first stage. Other facilities were to follow.
The site has several constraints with the most challenging being contaminated land as the site was formally a landfill site. This meant earthworks and drainage around the existing landfill and clay capping needed to be carefully considered.
An enjoyable part of the design has been collaborating with the cycling and roller skating club to develop track geometry that creates a safe, fast and competitive facility for all parties. The track will be lit for night-time racing and can be used up to a national and inter-national level of racing.
Currently, a 50% preliminary design has been delivered with a final tender package on target for June. With the potential upcoming Olympics, the project may be fast tracked so all other facilities beyond stage 1 are delivered. Bligh Tanner is hoping they can remain involved with these other features, particularly the pump track and learn to ride. Council is yet to confirm timeframes for construction, but once they do so, it will be eagerly anticipated by the community. This facility will be the first of its kind in Brisbane and provide an incredible location for sporting excellence, and families to come watch and learn to ride bikes.
