Kingsford Smith Drive river walk revealed as Brisbane Mayor warns of weekend lane closures
RESIDENTS have been given a sneak peek of Brisbane’s newest river walk at Kingsford Smith Drive. But the Lord Mayor also warned drivers the road would get worse before it gets better.
Local
Don't miss out on the headlines from Local. Followed categories will be added to My News.
KINGSFORD Smith Drive will be reduced to one lane in each direction for five weekends for the next part of its $650 million upgrade.
Lord Mayor Graham Quirk announced the partial closure as he showed off the first 200m of the river walk that will follow the upgraded corridor.
Kingsford Smith Drive connects the Brisbane CBD and the airport, the Port of Brisbane and is part of the Australia Trade Coast — freight makes up 15 per cent of its movements.
It is also a key road for the State Government’s Northshore Hamilton development.
Councillor Quirk said underground service works, including drainage, required digging “significant trenches” and the reduced lanes.
“We don’t like to create these inconveniences but, unfortunately, it’s a reality with infrastructure projects to get to that golden end you have to have some inconvenience along the way,” he said.
“We are trying to work with people on that and give plenty of advice in advance so people can plan their trips.”
He said drivers had already been “extremely co-operative” with the slower speed zones that have applied throughout the roadworks, which began in 2016.
Cr Quirk promised the end result, including the river walk, would be “absolutely worth it”.
He said 200m of the 1.2km river walk, part of the project’s $70 million spend on pedestrian and cycling facilities, had been constructed.
“We’ll also see some areas where people will be able to sit down and take in the ambience of the river and the a city along this section,” he said.
“It’s about creating leisure and lifestyle components to what is a very important, functional road network in the city.”
The Kingsford Smith Drive upgrade will be complete by the end of 2019.
High school swap history with Brisbane-Jakarta exchange
Hundreds of high school students will be able to get a taste of life in Indonesia under Australia’s first Islamic student swap program, with the deal to kick off in January.
Lot sizes almost slashed in half as state hikes council’s housing target
The state has ordered a bayside council to increase its housing supply by 30 per cent to accommodate an extra 45,192 residents by 2046 and has slashed the minimum lot size to help with the move.