Major Brisbane road artery to close for 17 days for repairs

Indooroopilly’s two-lane, heritage-listed Walter Taylor Bridge will close for 17 days in September to enable major repairs, Brisbane City Council said.

The 88-year-old bridge, which crosses the Brisbane River between Indooroopilly and Chelmer, is a major traffic corridor for the western suburbs.

Its closure is likely to increase traffic pressure on other parts of the road network, which is why it’s set for the September school holidays, the council’s infrastructure committee chair, Cr Andrew Wines, said.

Indooroopilly’s Walter Taylor Bridge will close for two weeks to enable major maintenance works.

“Every consideration was made to minimise disruptions, including coinciding the works with the school holiday period and the 50-cent public transport fare trial,” he said.

State MP Mark Bailey - whose Miller electorate includes the bridge - questioned why repairs were needed so quickly on the 88-year-old bridge and why they could not wait until January holidays.

“The first couple of weeks in January are the quietest time on the roads when people are away on holidays,” Bailey said.

“It is obviously an enormous amount of work that needs to be done quickly, so the councillor should release all of that information.”

Cr Wines said Council chose to do the repair work in September because the state government’s cheaper 50 cent fares offered commuters a cheap alternative to use trains and buses and not cars.

He said Brisbane City Council’s understood Indooroopilly Shoppington was very popular with families and younger people during the January school holidays.

The bridge – built by Indooroopilly Toll Bridge Ltd between 1931 and 1936, and designed by its director, Walter Taylor – opened in 1936 and operated as a toll bridge into the 1960s.

Taylor died in 1955 and the bridge, then known as the Indooroopilly Toll Bridge, was renamed the Walter Taylor Bridge in 1956 in recognition of his achievements.

Then Queensland governor Sir Leslie Orme (far left) crosses the Indooroopilly Toll Bridge on its opening day in 1936 with its designer, Walter Taylor (far right).Credit: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland.

Until the early 2000s, people lived in the northern bridge tower, and when it was a toll bridge, supervisors lived in both the northern and southern towers.

The bridge will close from 9am on Friday, September 13, to 5am on Monday, September 30, for major maintenance works, Wines said. These include joint and critical concrete repairs, a full road resurface and waterproofing.

“The complexity of these works mean they must be completed around the clock and the bridge cannot be in use as vibrations could jeopardise the final structural integrity of the works,” he said.

“The Walter Taylor Bridge is an iconic heritage-listed structure that needs ongoing maintenance to ensure people can continue to use it for decades to come.”

Major works were also carried out in 2013 and 1993, he added.

During the 2013 works, the bridge was closed at night for five months, but for only two full days. This time it will be fully closed for 17 days to enable a more comprehensive overhaul.

The work will not interfere with the Ipswich rail line, which runs on the downstream side of the Walter Taylor Bridge, nor the adjacent Jack Pesch cycling bridge.

Road signs will give motorists more advice on the closure closer to September.