Next Phase of Queen’s Wharf Bridge Design Submitted

An evolved design has been released as part of a response to information request for the planned Queen’s Wharf Neville Bonner Pedestrian Bridge.

According to the design documentation, the bridge’s mid-river pier location has had a minor realignment of a few meters, which has stemmed from issues regarding public realm and in-ground services at the South Bank side.

Spanning more than 270 meters across the Brisbane River, the current arch and mast hybrid bridge design features a dramatic slender cabled arch structure that has been inspired by South Bank’s central arbour.

A tall 77-meter mast has been proposed which supports the pedestrian carriageway below. Similar mast based bridge designs have been used on the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin, Ireland and the Alamillo Bridge in Seville, Spain.

The bridge’s architectural principals that have been adopted are structural honesty, pedestrian experience, moments, and urban integration.

“The design will emphasis the importance of having a sense of arrival (sense of place).”

Featuring only one arch in the original bid design, the new design has since evolved to include a second cable supported archway on the South Bank side in order to maintain reasonable height clearance to the below Clem Jones Promenade.

The centre of the bridge features an expanded bridge observation section that will allow people to stop and observe the city from this mid vantage point.

Part of the information request details options to remove the central pier of the bridge all together and create a full generic arch bridge which according to the design documents “would not be appropriate for the site context, and would simply not achieve the vision outlined by BCC”.

Possible design shortcomings

• CORRECTION: It was previously reported that there was no apparent shade structure planned for the bridge, however the new revised schematic design will have similar shading to that of the Kurilpa and Goodwill Bridges.
• The pedestrian bridge in the original Priority Development Area scheme was designed as a pedestrian only bridge with no cycling ramps proposed. The Brisbane City Council’s recent decision to remove cycling lanes from the Victoria Bridge as part of the Brisbane Metro may pose an issue for cycling if CBD bike access is limited to the two furthest points of entry into the CBD from South Bank which is from the Kurilpa and Goodwill Bridges.

The development application number for this project is 846.