Opinion: Brisbane in green bridge frenzy as Story Bridge left to rot

In the finest tradition of Australian politics, we now have a crisis which is someone else’s fault, writes Mike O’Connor. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Six years have passed since then lord mayor of Brisbane Graham Quirk told ratepayers that as another cross-river bridge could cost up to $1bn to build, it was vital the council continued to maintain the Story Bridge.

“There will never be another Story Bridge and, with it now approaching its 80th year, it is vital that we undertake works so it can continue to help residents get home quicker and safer,” Cr Quirk said.

After eight years in the top job, Cr Quirk resigned two months after stating the blindingly obvious truth that maintaining the Story Bridge was vital. Without it, inner-city traffic would be gridlocked.

It was so vital that it is now apparent that no system was in place to monitor the ongoing structural integrity of the bridge.

We covered it in pretty lights and we let people climb it if they were prepared to pay $150 for the experience, but all the time the rust bomb has been ticking.

It would be fair to suggest that you do not need to possess degrees in metallurgy and structural engineering to appreciate that a steel bridge built in 1940 over a river which contains a mix of salt water and fresh water is going to have rust issues.

You would, you might presume, keep a close eye on things and thus take appropriate action to avoid the detonation of the rust bomb – or you might not.

Then lord mayor Graham Quirk climbs the Story Bridge in 2016.

You might, instead of spending the significant amounts of ratepayers’ money on the detailed works needed to ensure problems were dealt with as they arose, decide that what the city needed were green bridges.

Cr Quirk’s successor, his faithful deputy Cr Schrinner, wasted no time in displaying his green credentials, for within minutes of donning the lord mayoral chain of office he announced he would spend $550m building green bridges.

Those people who live in the western suburbs and have to rely on the hopelessly inadequate 89-year-old Walter Taylor Bridge to cross the river must have been thrilled to hear this news.

Nobody had asked for green bridges. Grey ones that you could drive across would have been nice. Paint them green if you must but provide for an obvious need rather than pursue vanity projects that do nothing to address the city’s ever deepening traffic crisis.

People who drive cars, however, are bad. People who ride bikes and walk are good so $300m was spent on the Kangaroo Point green bridge and another $60m on the Breakfast Creek green bridge which is about in total what it is estimated it will cost to fix the Story Bridge.

Alas, the council can’t afford to fix it so the cry goes out. The state government has to help! The federal government has to help! It’s a crisis! Perhaps, but it one of the council’s own making.

In the finest tradition of Australian politics, we now have a crisis which is someone else’s fault. It’s the state government’s fault that it gave the bridge to the council in 1947 and how was the council to know that it needed massive restoration.

There has been talk of a toll on the bridge which would divert traffic up Ann Street and bring the city to a standstill or a levy, all admissions that the council has manifestly failed in its duty to ratepayers to adequately and responsibly maintain one of the city’s major assets.

The bridge has to be restored by the time of the 2032 Olympics which makes you wonder how, if the council can’t afford to fix the bridge which it owns and which is its absolute responsibility, is it going to tip in towards the cost of the Olympic infrastructure?

There have been reported mutterings of discontent from Olympic organisers at the reticence of the council to put its hand into its coffers leading Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate to deride Cr Schrinner as a freeloader.

“He’s not putting a dollar in because his council is heading towards $5bn in debt,” said Cr Tate.

The council is presently advertising for a speech writer who will be tasked with “drafting short and long-form speeches for the lord mayor, civic cabinet chairs and administration councillors”.

Whoever gets the job should be mindful of Plato’s observation that a wise man speaks because he has something to say, a fool because he has to say something.

Story Bridge: 80 years in 54 pictures

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