New Kangaroo Point bridge could be named for 2032 Games

Brisbane’s new Kangaroo Point crossing could be named the Olympic Bridge in honour of the 2032 Games, lord mayor Adrian Schrinner revealed as he inspected a construction milestone.

A barge in the Brisbane River is preparing to install huge pylons that will support the new 460-metre pedestrian and cycle bridge between Kangaroo Point and the City Botanic Gardens.

The design of Brisbane City Council’s proposed Kangaroo Point green bridge.

With the barge in place, work on the riverbed will begin on Wednesday – the start of a 10-month process to put all the supports in place so the bridge can be built.

Project director Bram Gruwez, from BESIX Watpac, said this was the easy part. From an engineering perspective, he said, the installation of the bridge structure itself would be more challenging.

“It has a lot of difficult stages in it, which we have to engineer to work through with experts, but it’s also a bridge that will be an architectural landmark to the city, with cable stays with a big pylon,” he said.

“I think it will be a real asset, and the whole team is very proud to work on it.”

Cr Schrinner said there had been a push for the bridge to be named after reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Ash Barty, but a spokesman for the lord mayor later clarified no official approach had been made.

“Team Barty didn’t want anything named after her at this stage, until she’s finished her career, and I think we all want to see her have a long, ongoing career, so it’s probably a bit early to name anything,” the lord mayor said.

That leaves the bridge, expected to be completed in 2023, without an official name.

“We’ll have a look, we’ll have a think about it,” Cr Schrinner said.

“I like the idea of the Olympic Bridge, but that’s not official, that’s just something that we’ll have to work on.”

The lord mayor said the bridge would provide a vital pedestrian link from the CBD to Woolloongabba, the site of the main stadium for the 2032 Olympic Games.

“People will be able to come from this location here, down near the Port Office, cross the bridge and then, within a few short minutes’ walk, they’ll be in the Gabba Olympic precinct,” Cr Schrinner said.

“You can see the game-changing potential of this piece of infrastructure.”

But the bridge may not be able to contribute to the Games in the way the lord mayor hoped.

A barge moored in Brisbane River for construction of the new Kangaroo Point green bridge. Credit: Cameron Atfield

There has been a trend in recent Olympics for the main cauldron to burn away from the main stadium.

Cr Schrinner told Brisbane Times a proposal to have the 2032 Olympic cauldron atop the bridge’s 95-metre mast had been investigated, but engineering and wind issues had ruled that option out.

Another feature of the bridge will be an above-river restaurant near the city landing.

Cr Schrinner said council was keen to secure a tenant sooner rather than later.

“That’s something we want to get into quite early because we want to make sure the restaurant and the cafe opportunity, or the boutique bar, is designed in a way that will suit the operators,” he said.

“So whoever the potential operators might be, and we don’t know that yet, we want to make sure it’s designed well for the operating environment. We want to do early engagement with them, and that will be across a broad range of operators, so that when we build it, we build it for purpose.”