Story Bridge documents released amid cover-up claims

The Brisbane City Council is releasing all reports linked to maintenance and restoration of footpaths on the Story Bridge, after weeks of mounting pressure from the public and opposition councillors.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, infrastructure chair Andrew Wines tabled a stack of papers he said was “all of the reports on the footpath that I have in my possession”.

The reports – seen by this masthead and expected to be accessible on the council’s website next week – deemed several parts of the bridge an “extreme risk” to the public.

The bridge’s footpaths are at “extreme risk” of giving way, but experts have outlined options to keep them open to pedestrians.Credit: Courtney Kruk

The bridge’s footpaths were closed about 10 weeks ago while Cyclone Alfred lashed the region with winds exceeding 108km/h.

They are yet to reopen, as Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner called on state and federal governments to help fund the as-yet-unspecified cost of maintaining and restoring the bridge.

A report, dated March 5 and referenced by the council last week, recommended the footpaths remain closed until it could be determined they would not collapse under pressure from pedestrians.

But the report provided four options for the paths over the next 12 months: they could be completely closed; closed to the public; they could remain in use after further testing; or they could remain in use while traffic flow was monitored.

“There is a reasonable level of confidence that the footpaths can be operated at the recommended operation loads … [but] for all solutions, spalling risks [concrete chunks of the bridge falling off] are still present and require mitigation as they pose extreme risks,” the report read.

The council’s decision to keep the paths open for maintenance workers was the cheapest of the four proposals, with maintenance costing an extra $1.5 million a year if workers could not use the walkway.

Keeping the footpath open to the public while monitoring the weight load would cost at least $5 million more than any of the alternatives, while a complete closure would affect tourist drawcards such as Riverfire and the Story Bridge Adventure Climb.

A survey completed in April this year and re-released in a May 20 review seen by this masthead canvassed several options to keep pedestrians on the bridge for the longer term, including a false deck over the path, or temporarily closing a traffic lane to serve as a walkway.

There is bipartisan support in City Hall to keep all lanes of the bridge open to traffic, and Schrinner shot down the option last week – despite some cyclists already using lanes alongside vehicles.

Schrinner has come under pressure over a lack of transparency since the footpaths were closed without clarification from the council.

Council Opposition Leader Jared Cassidy labelled it “one of the biggest cover-ups this city has ever seen”.

“This is the worst case of mismanagement of the most important asset we’ve got in Brisbane in a generation or more,” he said.

Schrinner said the opposition had “cherry-picked” details to discredit the council.

“What we have is the duel of reports,” he said.

“I promise our work is fully inspectable and open to review because we are well advanced in our preparations in the replacement.”

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