Hated riverfront restaurant could be ‘scrap metal’ in days

It has been a rusting hulk on the Brisbane River for 11 years, but by this weekend the most controversial restaurant in Queensland could be “scrap metal’’.

Work began this morning to remove a restaurant that has been a rusting, graffitied eyesore on the inner-Brisbane riverfront for 11 years.

A crane being used to build Council’s Kangaroo Point green bridge today (March 28) began the process of removing Drift restaurant from the Bicentennial Bikeway at Milton.

Drift famously washed into the Go Between bridge in the 2011 floods and was vacant until it was dumped on the Bicentennial Bikeway in last month’s flood.

The green bridge crane on site.

The crane should be able to move the restaurant off the bikeway in less than a week.

The bikeway is one of the busiest in Australia, carrying up to 5000 pedestrians, but the restaurant has blocked the route.

Council this morning closed a turning lane on adjacent Coronation Drive, and dropped the speed limit to 40kmh, to allow cyclists and pedestrians to safely get past the blockage.

Council Civic Transport Chair, Ryan Murphy, said action had to be taken but they had designed the stopgap measure to minimise disruption to motorists.

“It’s a really important road used by 75,000 vehicles a day,’’ he said in a radio interview this morning.

“So one of the things we were careful to do during this diversion was to make sure Coronation Drive continued to flow.’’

Drift restaurant is blocking the Bicentennial Bikeway. Picture: Brad Fleet

Cr Murphy claimed last week the move was necessary as Council believed the Government could take up to six weeks to even begin removal work.

But Transport Minister Mark Bailey vehemently denied that and this morning announced the removal process had begun.

Weather permitting, Drift would be removed from the bikeway in less than a week although the “full job’’ of making it safe and relocating could take a month or more.

It would not be known until the restaurant was up in the air if it would need to be cut into pieces.

“It’s expected to take Maritime Safety Queensland up to a week to clear the bikeway of the very unstable structure and longer to complete the full job,’’ Mr Bailey said.

Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey at the site. Mr Bailey, a keen cyclist, said he had progressed the removal timeline as quickly as possible to reopen the bikeway. Picture: Adam Head

“The Government was happy to step up and lead this huge engineering task after Brisbane City Council requested our assistance.

“It’s a huge engineering task for Maritime Safety Queensland to remove the 200-tonne restaurant, which is currently impaled on river pilings.

“The structure poses a risk to safety so an exclusion zone has been issued on the Brisbane River.

“I’m glad to announce a fortnight of careful and extensive preparations has now phased into on site operations.’’

However, pedestrian access along the riverfront outside the Queens Wharf casino site in the CBD was still closed. No reopening date has yet been confirmed.