FUTURE-PROOFING GROUNDBREAKING SMART CITY

Image © Regional Development Australia Sunshine Coast

A rare greenfield opportunity for developers SunCentral, the city is to be constructed on Queensland's Sunshine Coast and will feature a range of innovative technology including:

• Internet connectivity of unlimited speed enabled by a giant undersea cable
• An automated underground vacuum waste system
• Automated light poles that respond to changes in natural light
• Induction-charging roads to enable electric vehicles to stay powered constantly

Entrepreneur and technology advisor, Zach Johnson, said, “We want to build something that doesn’t currently exist. In what must be almost a first in the modern era, we don’t have legacy infrastructure to contend with, we’re building from scratch. We’ve got this greenfield site and that gives us the opportunity to identify what sort of infrastructure is most beneficial to the use of autonomous vehicles — but that’s just one piece.”

Another crucial piece to any successful urban centre is sustainable green space. Sunshine Coast Regional Council completed a successful tree pit trial with Citygreen in Caloundra five years ago and introduced SunCentral to this innovative technology. SunCentral and Citygreen collaborated, with Citygreen completing a thorough Cost Benefit Analysis for the Maroochydore City Centre (MCC) project. 

The challenge was that the initial design did not allow much room for trees in the sidewalk and road alignment. Trish Menzies, Senior Landscape Architect and Director at Vee Design, felt very strongly about the importance of incorporating green space and altered the design to include a continuous corridor vault where tree pits could go. With a dedicated space set aside, Citygreen completed thorough technical design and construction drawings for the Stratacell system, enabling 61 trees to successfully mesh in with the surrounding infrastructure. With just a few design revisions, SunCentral was happy with the design and constructability.

Construction is currently underway with positive feedback from the contractor who commends Citygreen’s detailed technical drawings, which have made the process quick and efficient. They have also been impressed by how quickly and efficiently the system is being installed – so much so that they are ahead of schedule.

Stay tuned for a full report when this groundbreaking project is completed.

For more information check out the video below.