The $5.8 Million Engineering Building Expansion at USQ Springfield, Ipswich Commences

University of Southern Queensland has announced the commencement of the $5.8-million expansion of its engineering building.

The USQ expansion project will have its single-storey building converted into a two-storey structure that will quadruple its teaching, learning, and research capacity. The school said that project will be the biggest undertaken at the campus since they opened the  $45-million second major building in 2015.

Head of Civil Engineering and Surveying, Professor Kevin McDougall, said that the project is a significant investment that will provide students more opportunities to develop their technical and practical engineering and surveying skills utilizing the latest technology. He also stressed that engineers and surveyors play a crucial role in shaping our world and that their skills are critical in the nation’s economic recovery efforts post pandemic.

Photo credit: University of Southern Queensland / usq.edu.au

“We want to make sure our students have the best facilities and opportunities to learn, and ensure our graduates have the sought-after skills that industry needs, both now and into the future,” Professor Kevin McDougall said.



“It will also expand our capacity to conduct leading-edge research and work with industry to contribute to the development of new knowledge and solutions that address real-world problems.”

Quadric was contracted to undertake the expansion project which is expected to be completed in time for the start of Semester 1, 2021 and would provide learning spaces for the University’s comprehensive suite of engineering and surveying programs at Springfield.

Features of the expanded engineering building include:

• Civil engineering laboratory with separate concrete mixing

• Curing and durability facility

• Robotics and automation laboratory with fabrication facilities

• Student collaboration space

• Seminar room

• Surveying preparation room

• Heat treatment, fire testing and materials testing and metrology laboratories

• Mechanical engineering and fluid dynamics laboratory

• Electronics laboratory

• Communications laboratory

• Electrical power laboratory

The building, designed by dwp Architects, will have multiple built-in sensors throughout the structure that will allow students to conduct real-time monitoring of the building’s structural health performance. The system will facilitate the measurement of the structure’s critical and dynamic characteristics including strain-stress, deflection, frequencies and mode shapes.

Professor McDougall described it as a “living lab” that will provide both students and visitors with valuable opportunities for research and teaching collaboration across various disciplines.