| Go Between Bridge | |
|---|---|
| Official name | Go Between Bridge |
| Carries | Motor vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists |
| Crosses | Brisbane River |
| Locale | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Design | twin concrete cantilever box girder |
| Longest span | 117 metres (384 ft) |
| Opened | 5 July 2010 |
The Go Between Bridge, formerly known as the Hale Street Link, is a toll bridge for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists over the Brisbane River in innercity Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The bridge connects Merivale and Cordelia Streets in West End to Hale Street and the Inner City Bypass at Milton. It is Brisbane's first inner-city traffic bridge in 40 years[1] and is expected to carry around 12,000 vehicles per day.[2] The bridge opened to traffic in the early hours on 5 July 2010.[3]
The Go Between Bridge is named after the popular Australian indie rock band The Go-Betweens,[4] which was formed in Brisbane. The bridge is part of Campbell Newman's TransApex transport plan. It allows drivers to save 15 minutes of travel during peak hour as vehicles will be able to avoid congestion on the William Jolly Bridge.
A charity concert featuring Robert Forster from the The Go-Betweens and other singers was held on 25 June, followed by a community open day on 4 July 2010.[5]
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The bridge was unpopular with many residents of West End, and with some parents from the West End State school who were concerned about increased traffic and air pollution. The "Stop the Hale Street Bridge Alliance" was formed to voice these concerns.[6][7] At the start of the bridge's construction two protesters were arrested for allegedly writing graffiti on a wall surrounding the project site.[8]
Construction began in July 2008 and the project was completed in early July 2010.[9] The bridge was built by The Hale Street Link Alliance (HSLA) which consisted of four companies; Bouygues Travaux Publics, Macmahon Holdings, Seymour Whyte Holdings and Hyder Consulting.[9] During construction lane closures on Coronation Drive caused delays for motorists and resulted in temporary changes to associated public transport services.[10] The final concrete pour for the main bridge span occurred on 2 December 2009.[11] The construction cost for the bridge was AU$338 million.[12]
The Go Between Bridge is a four-lane bridge with dedicated pedestrian and cycle pathways. It is a three span, twin concrete box girder structure built using balanced cantilever construction. The main bridge span is 117 metres long, supported by two river piers located 74 metres north and 80 metres south of the abutments on each river bank. The pathways are 3.6 metres wide and designed for equitable access. A pedestrian pathway is located on the eastern (city) side of the bridge and a cycleway on the western (Toowong) side. As the Go Between Bridge is steep, the pedestrian path is being built as a separate structure at a lesser grade. This allows for the path gradient to comply with equitable and disabled access requirements.[9]
A naming competition for the bridge was held through the website www.NameThatBridge.com, with eleven shortlisted suggestions put to a "popular vote", attracting less than 6,000 votes. The winning name was announced on 29 September 2009.
Initially the Brisbane City Council planned to recover the cost of the bridge by collecting a toll of $2.70 per vehicle.[11] However due to budget savings this amount was reduced to $1.50 until the end of 2010, then for the first six months of 2011 it cost $2.00, rising to $2.35 plus CPI from July 2011.[2] The bridge features free-flow tolling with electronic tag and video matching payment options.
In July 2010, 9,000 vehicles per day were using the bridge, increasing to 11,725 by mid September 2010.[13] It is expected that this figure would rise to 17,500 by 2011 and in 2021 be 21,000 vehicles.[14] During its first year of operation the bridge collected A$8.18 million from tolls but costs $30 million to operate.[15] During that period the highest number of daily uses was 15,783 on the 24 March 2011.[15]
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