THERE'S the marketing videos - a fast, quiet tram gliding through Sydney - and then there's the reality of light rail.
And that reality is being experienced on the Gold Coast right now - kilometres of barricades, fences, and exposed mains that have been delayed for months - along strips of struggling shops, with the beginnings of tracks being laid and bridges half-built.
A city shovelling, grinding and digging. And sending a warning to Sydney: "It will be painful, but it will be worth it."
In Sydney, it is expected to take six years to build 15km of track linking the CBD with universities, hospitals and major sporting precincts in the east.
On the Gold Coast, trams will link the beach and tourist centre to the Griffith University and a new medical precinct. Valued at $1.2 billion, it is the biggest infrastructure project in the country.
While the Gold Coast has been challenged by retrofitting a 70-year-old city built for cars, planners believe it will be harder in Sydney - a grandmother compared with the Gold Coast - a city built for horse and cart with more than one million people coming in and out each day.
"You cannot undersell the impact this will have. And you need to try to mitigate those issues," Gold Coast Rapid Transit project director Peter Papantoniou says. "The biggest issue is what you find underground - water, gas, telecommunication, sewers, NBN - and the relocation of those services."
On the Gold Coast they found utilities mapped inaccurately or in bad condition and needing to be replaced. Despite them being grouped together, they couldn't move them all at once.
"Many are only able to be worked on by specialist contractors," Papantoniou says.
Roads were widened, intersections upgraded and communications, power, water, gas and sewerage moved but the streets suffered, with parking spaces lost, and nobody wanted to walk through the country's longest construction site.
"Southport was struggling and it continues to struggle. There is a high turnover in retail - construction was always going to be tough. You will find retail will spring up and close back down," GCRT property manager Paul Grennan said.
"People will accept a difficult construction period as long as you are up-front about it. There is a lot of opportunity for redevelopment - we have see land values increase."
At the moment it's noisy and dusty, with car parking wiped out and retail vacancy rates soaring from 5 per cent to 22 per cent. Drivers have lost lanes and turning points and road works change regularly.
Exceptional Tuition and Resumes director Monique Jeremiah moved her office out of Surfers Paradise - but says she will probably move back when the light rail is running.
"Once they put up the fences I noticed the clients were not coming in as much," she says.
"I had to think of my clients first. Can they get to me? I think it will be positive for the Gold Coast once it's finished. I would consider moving back in one to two years depending how it's going in Surfers."
Griffith University communications director Dean Gould says light rail will transform the Gold Coast - with 16 stations to the university and a brand new $1.7 billion training hospital.
"It's disruptive. But the transformation over the next 12 months will be dramatic,' he says.
"This is a side of the Gold Coast that is not talked about in tourist brochures. Light rail will have test tracks running by the end of the year. There are two stops here on the campus. It will become a major artery."
Griffith has more than 18,000 students - all relying on cars to get to school.
"Parking has been an issue wherever you are in the Gold Coast and we are hoping light rail will alleviate that," Gould says.
Car culture is so predominant that one of the most successful coffee chains pioneered drive-through coffee shops - it now has six and plans to expand.
"It's proven to be quite a success," a spokesman for Zarraffras Coffee said.
Authorities want to slash vehicle dependence in the car-dominant city where 87.9 per cent of trips are made by private car - with the aim to reduce that to 74 per cent.
Gold Coast councillor Cameron Caldwell admits it has been a challenge.
"It well and truly disturbs the city. We are still building but you need to believe in it," he says.
"Actual track is being laid now - I'm driving over a light rail line on the Gold Coast. It definitely feels foreign."
On the Gold Coast, roadworks preparing for light rail began in 2010 and the actual laying of the tracks began in late 2012.
This year involves station fit out and the power source will be constructed, with passenger services to begin mid-2014.
Sydney City Council says staff have been consulting closely with their Gold Coast counterparts and will take careful note of lessons learned there.
"We will work with the state to ensure pedestrian access to all businesses is maintained - our light rail will go up the centre of the road with remaining footpaths widened - not removed or replaced," it says.
"The city has a great deal of experience in upgrading paving and managing business access and will lend this expertise to the state to ensure the least amount of inevitable disruption is incurred."
But most of these underground services in Sydney were owned by state or federal enterprises.
"We are satisfied that Transport for NSW is undertaking extensive pre-works analysis and, while this takes time, it is critical to a faster delivery once work starts," the council says. Sydney Water said they had a Geographic Information System that is kept up to date with new, disconnected and renewed Sydney Water-owned water, sewer and stormwater assets.
"The processes ensuring new works are captured in the GIS have been refined over many years and are actually quite robust," it says.
Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian says delivery of the CBD and South East Light Rail will provide fast, regular and reliable public transport services to the CBD, SCG and Moore Park, Randwick and Kingsford. "However, construction in a busy urban environment will involve challenges," she admits.
"Representatives from the Gold Coast Light Rail and other light rail projects in Australia and overseas have already been consulted to ensure lessons learnt on these projects are considered during the delivery of the project."
Berejiklian says extensive underground utility surveys had begun along the proposed route to understand where the all-important utilities are located.
"This includes using ground penetrating radar, physical inspections of all pits and conduits along the route and co-ordinating all known field data," she says.
"The recommended route will be subject to more detailed investigation over the coming months. The final route and its alternatives will be publicly exhibited as part of an environmental impact assessment process." Papantoniou says Sydney has to watch out and prepare for construction fatigue.
"It's really about engaging business and the community early, the design may change. The key for us has been to get in and get out as soon as we can," he says.
"Consultation will be really important, and you need it up-front, and you need to keep consulting for the duration of the whole project."
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said people had to feel they were being consulted.
"You have to provide avenues for people to give feedback so they don't feel they have been left in the lurch - and you have to listen," he says. "When we moved car parking we had to find others nearby or reduce parking fees. Everyone wants to see the light. They want to know it's going to end so they know that in eight weeks it will be over. It's a pain you need to go through to gain."
Papantoniou's final warning is that Sydney authorities would have to actually work together and be flexible with night works, noise and dust so work is not delayed due to red tape. "It's essential for state and local government to work together. Most of the business community is saying they would rather have a short, sharp impact. They get construction fatigue after 18 months," he said.
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