Three months on, not even the council knows when Story Bridge paths will reopen

A protest organiser has labelled Brisbane’s lord mayor “budget Bjelke-Petersen” after a protest that would have shut down all six traffic lanes on the Story Bridge during peak hour was blocked by a court ruling.

And while traffic will flow freely on Friday, the saga of the unfunded Story Bridge restoration, and the closed footpaths, drags on.

Protesters lodged a notice of intention of the protest on May 20, making it authorised under the Peaceful Assembly Act, for a one-hour walk across the bridge’s traffic lanes on Friday from 8am. It was intended to draw attention to their calls for Brisbane City Council to allocate one car lane to pedestrian, cyclist and scooter traffic while the footpaths were repaired.

Signs went up on the Story Bridge warning of the protest on Friday.Credit: Space 4 Cycling

A lane re-allocation has been done before, on Coronation Drive, when the former Drift restaurant blocked the Bicentennial Bikeway in 2022.

The Story Bridge footpaths – used by about 4000 walkers, bike and scooter riders daily – were closed on March 5, with reports later revealing parts of the bridge were an “extreme risk” to the public, while council called for cash from the state and federal governments for a restoration.

Mediation efforts to alter the nature of the protest last week failed, and police took the organiser, Kathryn Good, to Brisbane Magistrates Court, with the support of council.

Prosecutor Acting Senior Sergeant Donna Kay said completely closing the bridge to traffic during peak hour would cause “mass disruption” and congestion, emergency services would be blocked, and “numerous businesses would not be allowed to trade”.

Magistrate Ross Mack replied: “They would be allowed to trade, they just wouldn’t get any business”.

“Someone has to go to work and walk, but as it stands now it takes them an extra 45 minutes to get to work, isn’t that an emergency worth protesting?” he asked.

Good, who was self-represented, told the court she understood the protest would cause disruption, but pointed to other times the Story Bridge was shut, including for seven hours during the Brisbane Marathon this Sunday.

Kathryn Good, who was organising a protest march across the Story Bridge calling for a traffic lane to be turned into a lane for cycling and walking.Credit: Felicity Caldwell

“Thousands of people normally use that bridge every day to get to work [by walking or riding],” she said, arguing council’s suggested detour via the Kangaroo Point Bridge was impractical and unsafe.

“I totally accept that the [Story Bridge] footpaths are unsafe.

“[But] 300,000 [walking, cycling and scooter] trips have been disrupted in the three months since it’s been closed.”

Kay, the police prosecutor, argued protesters could make their point without closing six lanes, and she said planning for the marathon closure began 12 months ago.

In making his ruling, the magistrate pointed to disruptions for motorists if the protest went ahead and impacts on emergency services.

“The bridge was always designed as a vehicle mover and society has developed now that more people are riding to work than when it was first erected,” Mack said.

“And since, there has been other pedestrian bridges put across the river.

“The primary purpose of the bridge, you might think, is to move vehicles across the bridge.”

Mack asked a Brisbane City Council solicitor when the footpaths would be reopened, and he replied: “I don’t have those instructions”.

A business case for the full bridge restoration is not due until 2027, but council will work on a temporary footpath first.

The Story Bridge in 1950.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday accused the council of letting the Story Bridge fall “into disrepair”, but Schrinner bit back, saying experts found they had been “excellent stewards” of the bridge.

“The latest advice states the Story Bridge footpaths would need to be replaced in the next two to five years, however, we’re progressing a replacement sooner to ensure they’re safe,” he said.

At a press conference, Schrinner said a temporary fix would open as soon as possible and likely involve putting a second deck on the footpath.

Protest organiser Kathryn Good removing a sign advising of a walk across the Story Bridge after a court ruled it could not go ahead.Credit: Space 4 Cycling

“From a safety point of view, we’re actually taking a cautious and conservative approach because I don’t know about you, but if you knew that there was only two years of life in a footpath on the Story Bridge, would you feel comfortable using it?”

Asked why maintenance was left for so long that both footpaths needed to be closed simultaneously, Schrinner argued it was not “left late”.

“The reality is there was a series of reports over many years, which indicated there were many years left in the footpaths,” he said.

“But we weren’t content to actually leave it with those reports, we commissioned even more reports, and it was the cyclone that gave us the opportunity to do more testing while the footpaths were closed.”

Earlier this week, Brisbane councillor Andrew Wines accused protesters of “taking a leaf out of the Extinction Rebellion playbook”, although Good said her protest was legal under the Peaceful Assembly Act, unless a court ruled otherwise.

Outside court, Good said she was disappointed, but she would not give up her fight for a lane to be dedicated to active transport.

“I think we can say that [Schrinner is] taking a leaf out of the playbook of a certain previous Queensland government who thought it was OK to tell people when and where to protest,” she said.

“If Peter Dutton is the Temu Trump, I think the mayor is a budget Bjelke-Petersen.”

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