New walkway to link Story Bridge to city heart

Openings have been cut in to the concrete walls of Brisbane’s 83-year-old Story Bridge for a new walking and riding trail from the city’s Kangaroo Point Green Bridge.

The underpass would feature new separated pedestrian and bike paths, an accessible viewing area and illustrative wall panels depicting the history of the Story Bridge.

The Kangaroo Point walkway under Story Bridge will connect to the city’s new green bridge.Credit: Brisbane City Council

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the idea was to join a city landmark of the past – the Story Bridge – with a landmark of the future, the city’s emerging Kangaroo Point Green Bridge.

“This underpass is a critical project that will connect the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge landing at Scott Street to the wider active transport network in Kangaroo Point and the eastern suburbs,” Schrinner said.

“It also represents a connection between Brisbane’s most iconic landmark of the last century and the future world-class landmark linking the city centre and Kangaroo Point Peninsula,” he said.

“This Story Bridge is not only part of Brisbane’s heritage but part of its future.

The walkway under the Story Bridge will include cycling, walking and scooting tracks and images from the bridge, which opened in July 1940.Credit: Brisbane City Council

“So it’s fitting that 95 per cent of the concrete sections removed from the bridge will be recycled and could be given a new life in other parts of the city.”

The new underpass would run between Main Street and Deakin Street at Kangaroo Point and was designed for cyclists, scooters, runners, walkers and joggers.

“To deliver this new connection we have cut openings into both sidewalls of the Story Bridge, with the walls delicately removed piece by piece,” he said.

“We now have daylight streaming through both sides of the underpass, lighting up a space that has never previously been accessible to the public.”

The next works include levelling the floor, installing drainage, relocating utility services, and building a wall to separate the underpass from the existing council depot.

The under-construction CBD to Kangaroo Point Green Bridge would remove 84,000 car trips across the Brisbane River after it was finished in 2024, Schrinner said.

“In 2041, it’s anticipated that around 2800 of those daily trips on the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge would continue through the new underpass,” he said.

The walkway will be finished in 2024 before the green bridge opens.

A map depicts the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge connecting to the Brisbane CBD.Credit: Brisbane City Council

The council wants to improve links between the CBD and the Gabba which will become a major retail, sports and cultural by the time the Games were underway in 2032, Schrinner said.

“The existing underpass at Thornton Street is not an accessible connection because of the stairs,” he said.

“With the Olympics and Paralympic Games on the horizon, there is a need for a convenient ongoing connection that would be able to link walkers and riders heading from The Gabba to the CBD.”

How the new walkway will link to Kangaroo Point and run under the Story Bridge

• Via a new separated pedestrian and bike path between Main Street and Deakin Street
• With a raised priority crossing from the Scott Street bridge landing across Main Street
• A new underpass uses the existing Council depot beneath the Story Bridge
• Realignment of Deakin Street provides an pedestrian path and two-way off-road bike path

The Story Bridge was opened on July 6, 1940. It is 777 metres across and is the longest cantilever bridge in Australia.

It was originally named the Jubilee Bridge during planning stages but was renamed in 1937 to recognise Queensland’s Public Service Commissioner, John Douglas Story.

A map of the Kangaroo Point landing for the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge.Credit: Brisbane City Council