Why Brisbane needs more bridges

When it comes to building new stadiums, our politicians love to don their hard hats. But mention the ‘B’ word and that’s a bridge too far, writes Dan Petrie.

Nothing fires up our political masters more than the opportunity to don the hard hat to announce the construction of a stadium or a rail line through scrub that will create 1000 new jobs in the construction phase. If only announcing a bridge garnered the same enthusiasm.

Stadiums and railways announcements are 6pm news gold but don’t mention the B word.

The thought of announcing a bridge crossing around Brisbane that would cater for … wait for it … gulp, ‘cars’ is for want of a better expression, ‘a bridge too far.’

The humble Walter Taylor bridge in Indooroopilly is the only cross river link for a million people. Picture: Adam Smith / News Corp

Not much has changed for the Walter Taylor bridge since it was pictured here in 1936. Picture: Supplied

Stadiums? tick because said politician can drape themselves with scarfs that play to our beating parochial hearts. Roads? Tick because it will be for more cars. Bridges? Sorry, too difficult.

When Brisbane City Council tried talking bridges, the green bridge was the political compromise that local government had landed on because the thought of connecting Toowong to the Tofu Curtain that is West End was simply too much. It is hard not to be impressed at how a Depression Era project, Indooroopilly’s Walter Taylor bridge (right) copes as the only join between Indooroopilly and Chelmer, Graceville, Corinda, Rocklea, Sherwood, Oxley and the entire southern corridor of suburbs.

A million people live within travelling distance of this humble yet quite lovely old bridge that has a single lane each way.

State Transport minister, Mark Bailey has posted on his social media accounts about lobbying hard for a duplication of the Walter Taylor Bridge while the council has lamented the lack of support from the state on such projects.

Even if a solution is found, accessing Indooroopilly Shopping Town is another challenge altogether. When the great cube of the west was built, the wisdom of removing Samford road has only highlighted the accessibility malaise. The only solution is a bridge into said shopping centre or a demolition crew if you don’t favour the solution.

Our collective fear of bridges has allowed the great Brisbane pastime of complaining about congestion to thrive and complain we will. Average driving times on Brisbane’s key roads are for the most part nearing 15-20 minutes with large numbers of the travelling public forced to go into the CBD before veering off to another part of city.

Still, this topic is not new and RACQ provided an excellent report in 2017 called ‘Bridging Brisbane’ surveying attitudes to new bridges and guess what? Support for new bridges that catered for motor vehicles was overwhelmingly strong.

A trip from Bellbowrie to Riverhills which could conceivably take two minutes on a bridge takes 25 minutes in non-peak hour traffic.

Bellbowrie residents were offered a green bridge in 2019 and rejected it. Building green bridges which only the most motivated will use in a subtropical environment is not the answer for a place where the motor vehicle is king.

If Romeo lived in Bulimba he would almost certainly give up if Juliet lived in Ascot. There is no way to get to her without having Romeo’s will to live fully expunged as he lines up to cross the Story Bridge.

The good burghers of Kenmore and Fig Tree Pocket, yes the hand of our former prime minister, Kevin Rudd is upon me, have to negotiate the great bottleneck that is Indooroopilly to get to Sherwood. Liberate Fig Tree Pocket I say!

However not even legendary World War II generals, Patton and Montgomery would attempt the Yeronga-St Lucia crossing.

It is time to connect the city and cross the river that cuts through it. Otherwise getting to the footy will become more difficult. In the time of COVID, the car has become more popular than ever and it will be some time before public transport is fully embraced again.

Yes, new stadia tend to have better seating than old ones but given the torture of dealing with Brisbane’s clogged motorways, the best seat will be at home as politicians of all stripes protect us from the thought of a river crossing.

Truthfully, we need to confront our fear of the dreaded river crossing. Yes, my fellow citizens, it is time to build bridges and get over

Dan Petrie is the Chief Information Officer of data analytics firm, Grafa and a former Economic Data Editor at Bloomberg LP who also goes by the name of Data Dan – do you have a data question? Email [e-mail]