With nearly $6.5 billion in water and sewage projects planned, Queensland’s infrastructure sector faces a major test to manage cost escalation, approvals complexity and declining productivity.
Queensland’s infrastructure sector is entering one of the most demanding delivery periods in its history, with the recently released Queensland Major Projects Pipeline Report 2025 highlighting more than $127 billion in major engineering construction planned over the next five years.
Prepared by the Queensland Major Contractors Association (QMCA), the latest report confirms both the scale of opportunity and the growing challenges, including sectors such as water and sewage, which make up almost $6.5 billion of planned investment over the next five years.
IPS Managing Director Sascha Kurz said the report demonstrated the essential role water projects play in supporting population growth, economic development and long-term resilience across Queensland.
“Water and sewage infrastructure underpins almost every aspect of community and industrial growth,” she said. “But these projects are competing for the much the same skills, capacity and approvals as all the upcoming transport, energy, defence and Games-related infrastructure, which creates a very constrained delivery environment.”
A growing pipeline, with rising uncertainty
While the overall pipeline is strong, the QMCA report highlights growing delivery risk, with water and sewage projects among the sectors facing the highest levels of uncertainty. More than a third of the sector’s pipeline remains unfunded, putting pressure on long-term planning and investment confidence.
Sascha said this uncertainty, combined with escalating construction costs and variations in productivity, made early project definition and certainty more critical than ever.
“The report makes it clear that cost escalation is not a short-term issue,” she said. “Forecast increases this year, followed by sustained growth through to 2028, are coinciding with long-term productivity challenges across the construction sector.”
“For water infrastructure, which is often technically complex, highly regulated and environmentally sensitive, these pressures are likely to be magnified even more,” Sascha said.
Approvals, procurement and the race against time
A consistent theme in the report was the impact of obtaining approvals and inefficient procurement on the industry’s ability to deliver the pipeline. Lengthy environmental approvals, extended procurement processes and delays between business case development, capital funding and construction delivery add months, and sometimes years, to project timelines.
“When the industry is being asked to deliver more than $14 to $15 billion of work each year, the speed at which projects move from concept to construction matters just as much as construction capacity itself,” Sascha said.
“For water and sewage projects, delays at the front end also have flow-on impacts for communities, service reliability and long-term water security.”
Planning, productivity and collaboration will define success
The scale of sewage infrastructure investment presents a significant opportunity to strengthen Queensland’s long-term water security, but Sascha said success would depend on how these projects were planned and delivered.
“That means clear project definition, earlier risk identification and procurement models that support collaboration and productivity rather than simply transferring risk,” she said.
“It also means recognising that productivity gains won’t come from a single reform. They will come from cumulative improvements across planning, design, procurement and delivery, and from stronger integration between asset owners, engineers and contractors.”
The role of experienced delivery partners
As Queensland enters this sustained period of infrastructure delivery, Sascha said the role of experienced engineering and project delivery partners would become even more important.
“Projects that are well defined early, supported by strong engineering input and aligned to practical delivery realities, are far more likely to succeed in this environment,” she said.
“For IPS, the QMCA report reinforce the importance of early engagement, integrated project development and delivery-focused engineering, particularly in the water and sewage sector, where the consequences of delay could be felt for decades.”
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