The Brisbane River, running through Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, is crossed by sixteen major bridges, from the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges downsteam to the Centenary upsteam. The river meanders through an urban area that comprises 1.8 million people.
There are two smaller crossings in the west of Brisbane City in the suburb of Mount Crosby: the Mount Crosby Weir, and Colleges Crossing (which straddles the boundary between Brisbane and Ipswich).
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# | Name | Usage | Description | Photo |
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1 | Sir Leo Hielscher (two bridges) — original bridge formerly known as the Gateway Bridge |
vehicles, cyclists & pedestrians |
Original bridge opened January 1986. Duplicate bridge opened May 2010. Concrete box girder design. 260 metre (853 ft) main span.[1] |
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2 | Story | vehicles & pedestrians |
Opened July 1940. Steel truss design. 777 metres (2,549 ft) long with a 282 metre (925 ft) main span.[2] |
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3 | Captain Cook | vehicles | Opened 1972. Concrete box girder design. 555 metres (1,821 ft) long with 183 metre (600 ft) main span.[3] |
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4 | Goodwill | pedestrians & cyclists |
Opened October 2001. 450 metres (1,476 ft) long with 102 metre (335 ft) main span.[4] |
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5 | Victoria | vehicles, cyclists & pedestrians |
Opened 1969. Replaced its namesake. 146.3 metre (480 ft) main span.[5] |
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6 | Kurilpa | pedestrians & cyclists |
Opened October 2009. 'Tensegrity' design. 425m long pathway[6] |
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7 | William Jolly — also known as Grey Street Bridge |
vehicles & pedestrians | Opened March 1932. Concrete arch design. 498 metres (1,634 ft) long with a 73 metre (240 ft) main span.[7] |
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8 | Merivale | rail | Opened November 1978. Tied steel arch design. Main span 132 metre (433 ft).[8] |
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9 | Go Between — formerly known as Hale Street Link. |
vehicles, cyclists & pedestrians |
Opened 5 July 2010. Concrete box girder balanced cantilever design.[9] |
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10 | Eleanor Schonell — formerly known as Green Bridge. |
buses, cyclists & pedestrians |
Opened December 2006. Cable-stayed design. 390 metres (1,280 ft) long.[10] |
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11 | Jack Pesch | cyclists & pedestrians |
Opened October 1998. Steel cable-stay design.[11] |
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12 | Albert | rail | Opened 1895. Steel truss design. Replaced its namesake. 208 metres (682 ft) long with two spans each 103.7 metres (340 ft).[12] |
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13 | Indooroopilly Railway | rail | Opened 1957. Steel truss design. 208.5 metres (684 ft) long with two equal spans.[13] |
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14 | Walter Taylor | vehicles & pedestrians |
Opened February 1936. Suspension design. Main span 183 metres (600 ft). The bridge's towers are occupied.[14] |
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15 | Centenary | vehicles, cyclists & pedestrians |
Concrete girder[15] |
In 2007 the Smart State Council announced plans for a series of new green mode bridges for Brisbane. New bridges include a connection from Margaret Street near the Stock Exchange in the City to Thornton Street, Kangaroo Point. From Cairns Street Kangaroo Point a new bridge will connect to the end of the floating riverwalk at Merthyr Road, New Farm. And from Merthyr Road, Teneriffe a new bridge will connect to Hardcaste Park, Hawthorne (near Lindsay Street). These new bridges will create a greenway corridor over 5 green bridges from Morningside, through Hawthorne, Teneriffe, New Farm, Kangaroo Point, City, Northbank, South Bank, Dutton Park and Boggo Road to the University of Queensland.[16]
The Clem Jones Tunnel is currently the only cross river tunnel built in Brisbane. It opened on 16 March 2010.
In addition to the existing bridges between Centenary Bridge and Wivenhoe Dam a number of others have been proposed.
The Goodna Bypass is designed to relieve congestion on the Ipswich Motorway and will have four new bridges over the river (but no access to or from the north-western suburbs). Land acquisitions were underway in 2010 to create the future transport corridor.[17] As of 2010, there is no date or funding provided to commence the construction of the Goodna Bypass.
The Western Bypass would have included a crossing of the river but has been cancelled.[18]
The existing crossings on this section of the river are listed below[19] (note: coordinates are derived from Google Earth).
Name of crossing and/or road | Coordinates | Description and/or purpose |
---|---|---|
Moggill Ferry | Links Riverview to Moggill | |
Mount Crosby Road at Colleges Crossing | Links North Tivoli to Mount Crosby | |
Allawah Road across Mount Crosby Weir | Adjacent to Mount Crosby Pumping Station | |
Kholo Bridge, Kholo Road | Links North Ipswich to Kholo | |
McMullen Road (ford, no longer used) | Links Borallon to farms at Lake Manchester | |
Summervilles Road (Burtons Bridge) | Links Borallon to farms at Lake Manchester, near Lake Manchester Dam | |
Banks Creek Road (Savages Crossing) | Links Fernvale to farms at Banks Creek | |
Brisbane Valley Highway | Between Fernvale and Wivenhoe Dam, taking the highway east of the river | |
Wivenhoe Pocket Road (Twin Bridges) | Links Fernvale to farms in Wivenhoe Pocket, crossing the river via an island | |
Brisbane Valley Highway across Wivenhoe Dam | The highway runs on top of the dam wall for 2.3 kilometres |
When Lake Wivenhoe is full the waters extend many kilometres up the river.[19] The first crossing upstream from the lake is a high level bridge built in conjunction with the dam to raise the Esk Kilcoy Road well above the maximum level of the lake. Several minor crossings of this section of the river shown on maps are omitted from the list below. The omitted crossings belong to one of the following groups:
The more significant crossings from Lake Wivenhoe to Moore are listed below.
Name of crossing and/or road | Coordinates | Description and/or purpose |
---|---|---|
Esk Kilcoy Road | Links Esk to Kilcoy via Somerset Dam | |
Gregors Creek Road | Links Brisbane Valley Highway to farms at Gregors Creek, and provides an alternate route to Kilcoy | |
D'Aguilar Highway | Links Brisbane Valley Highway to Kilcoy |
Linville Road follows the river from Moore through Linville to the Mount Stanley State Forest.[19] It crosses the river 12 times between Linville and its end, where it splits into Western Branch Road and Eastern Branch Road. Western Branch Road follows the west branch of the river to its source in Elgin Vale State Forest, north-west of Mount Stanley, crossing it 28 times. Eastern Branch Road follows the east branch most of the way to its source south-east of Mount Stanley, crossing it about 20 times before it ends.
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