Ferry terminals back in operation, work on river restaurant slows

Eight more CityCat terminals will come back online later this week, as works continues to remove the last traces of a Toowong restaurant devastated in the February flood.

Eight more ferry terminals will be operating by Thursday despite rain delaying efforts to repair extensive damage in February’s flood.

Work to remove the derelict Drift restaurant in Toowong, dumped on the bicentennial Bikeway during the deluge, has slowed due to wet weather.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey recently posted video on Facebook showing cranes removing pieces of the 200 tonne structure, which has been vandalised and derelict since the 2011 floods when it washed into the Go Between Bridge.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the eight terminals to come online this week included the popular Riverside and South Bank stops in the CBD.

As of Thursday, 13 terminals between Northshore Hamilton and Guyatt Park, St Lucia will be operational.

A yacht collides with a CityCat terminal on February 27. Picture: John Gass

“Just over 90 days ago Brisbane experienced its biggest-ever rain event and our ferry terminals were impacted by debris and flood waters,” Cr Schrinner said.

“Last week’s rain event caused a brief delay to our plans. Returning this level of service just 12 weeks after the devastating flood is a major achievement.’’

Under the temporary timetable, the Bulimba to Teneriffe cross-river service will continue every 15 minutes.

The end-to-end CityCat service will operate every 15-minutes, and CityHopper services will run in 30-minute intervals between South Bank, Riverside and Howard Smith Wharves.

The temporary Guyatt Park to West End cross-river and Hawthorne cross-river services will cease.

Part of the delay was due to limited availability of marine construction specialists, who were faced with massive damage along the river to recreational and commercial pontoons, jetties and gangplanks, as well as the CityCat terminals.

A piece of the Drift roof being craned off site last week.

Brisbane Transport Chair Ryan Murphy said a repair schedule for the eight remaining terminals was being finalised.

“These terminals are in some of the most challenging locations on the river,” he said.

“While work has been done to remove or reattach the gangway at these terminals, some further repair works are required before we can safely reopen them to the public,’’ he said.

“Some terminals did experience more damage than others and the Regatta and North Quay terminals will continue to remain out of action due to damage to both the gangway and land-based infrastructure from significant flood debris.’’

Cranes in action at the Drift site last week.

Mr Bailey said works were progressing well on the removal of the Drift structure.

Council had to barricade a turning lane on adjacent Coronation Drive and drop the speed limit on that section of the busy road to 40kmh to give cyclists a safe route past the blockage caused by Drift.

“The team is doing an amazing job on what’s turned out to be quite a challenging and difficult engineering task, all while contending with stints of bad weather,’’ Mr Bailey said.

“It’s good to see these vital transport corridors reopened after Council requested our assistance to remove the Drift structure after the floods.

“Despite the complex task, the entire Drift structure is expected to be fully removed from the Brisbane River.’’

About 75,000 motorists use Coronation Drive every day and about 5000 people use the bikeway, which sustained worse damage than first thought.