The Kushi Bar and Grill is closed. A cycle of small shops have opened and closed. Vulture and Stanley streets, near the Gabba, where Queensland first won the Sheffield Shield in1994-95, where the Lions won three premierships in a row in the 2000s, where Powderfinger practised and then Peter Siddle took a Test hat trick (2010), is run down despite a flourish of small roadworks. One Stanley Street business that has survived, despite almost no crucial foot traffic, is the ski and snow equipment business Snowscene. Hayden Foy from Woolloongabba's Snowscene across Stanley Street from Cross River Rail's future rail station. Credit:Tony Moore Owner Emily Warbrick, a member of the Gabba Business Association, noticed foot traffic dropping dramatically in their one-kilometre strip of Woolloongabba's Stanley Street over the past 12 years.

"We have seen a big decline in our businesses," Ms Warbrick said. "It's been in decline since the late 1990s, really," she said. Snowscene has been at two locations in Stanley Street over 16 years, both directly across the street from the old Go Print site and the Department of Mapping and Surveying's Sunmap Centre. Cross River Rail's Woolloongabba site in April 2019. Credit:Tony Moore As the Queensland government staff in those big businesses declined, then disappeared, local businesses began to see their lights go out.

It is long way from the Gabba of today to what is planned to appear in 2024. However, Ms Warbrick said green shoots were emerging. Closer to West End, Stanley Street near the Mater Hospital has new footpaths, new businesses and new traffic lanes. Near the Brisbane Cricket Ground, Coles took the bold decision several years ago to move into the Gabba Centre development – where the old Woolloongabba Hotel stood – across from the Gabba Cricket Ground. "Coles was a huge addition to the business sector," Ms Warbrick said.

"The Chalk Hotel had gone into receivership, or was about to go into receivership," she said. "That was a big loss to the area. New Cross River Rail design images. The track is set to run under the upgraded Woolloongabba station. "You see other inner-city suburbs like West End and Bulimba really go ahead while we suffer," she said. "So maybe this decision is something we can really look forward to."

"Maybe things are going to turn around." The decision Ms Warbrick describes is the awarding of contracts on Thursday to begin Brisbane's $5.4 billion underground Cross River Rail project. It will turn the Woolloongabba of 2019 towards a new start. It has been 12 years since Labor's then-transport minister Paul Lucas decided it was time Brisbane took rail underground.

Today Mr Lucas, who always wanted to be remembered as "the minister for building things", has retired from state politics and chairs the Cross River Rail Delivery Authority. Loading The $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project is a new 10.2-kilometre rail line from Dutton Park to Bowen Hills where 5.9 kilometres will run under the Brisbane River, providing the city with new underground rail stations at Woolloongabba, Albert Street and Roma Street. It is needed because the Merivale rail bridge near Roma Street station – Brisbane's single rail link between Brisbane's northside (and the booming Sunshine Coast) and its southside (including the growing Gold Coast), will soon be unable to cope with the number of trains. That is Brisbane's rail bottleneck.

No one disagrees with that. It has just taken 12 years to find a political solution. The company winning the contract to build the tunnels and the stations – both underground and above ground – is the Pulse consortium. What is the Pulse consortium? It includes major rail contractors the CIMIC group of companies, which includes Pacific Partnerships, CPB Contractors, UGL with international partners including Ghella, who built Brisbane's Legacy Way tunnel. Leighton Holdings changed its name to CIMIC in 2015. It is now Australia's largest tunnelling contracting company. It includes Leighton, Thiess, CPB Contractors and UGL among others.

In Brisbane it is a 50-50 partner in the $400 million construction of Brisbane's New Parallel Runway complex, which should be finished by 2020. On the Gold Coast, CIMIC construction arm CPB Contractors built the all-important stage two of the Gold Coast Light Rail project to meet the tight 2018 Commonwealth Games deadline. Tunnel vision...NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and transport minister Andrew Constance at the Marrickville dive site for the Sydney Metro. Credit:Nick Moir CIMIC is building the $2.81 billion second stage of Sydney's Metro which includes twin, 15-kilometre tunnels from Chatswood to Sydenham. That Sydney project includes six new underground metro stations at Crows Nest, Victoria Cross, Barangaroo, Martin Place, Pitt Street and Waterloo and is pushing ahead despite delays.

In Melbourne CIMIC Group is building the Westgate Bridge complex, a $2.49 billion network of bridges and highway-widening projects, which is under way. Speaking briefly to reporters in Brisbane on Thursday morning, CIMIC chief executive Michael Wright was understated but "very excited". "Certainly we will be opening the rail network for southern Queensland and delivering a world-class system for southern Queensland," Mr Wright said. "We've got certainly the leading rail services provider in the country with our companies CPB and UGL, with Pacific Partnerships wrapping that." He said CIMIC Group worked with Ghella, the company that built Brisbane's Legacy Way tunnel.