Article: Four Indooroopilly bridges enough, says councillor

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Four Indooroopilly bridges enough, says councillor

Four Indooroopilly bridges enough, says councillor
TONY MOORE
March 3, 2010 - 5:00AM

Brisbane City Council had no interest in buying land owned by the Australian Defence Force to increase cross-river traffic capacity at Indooroopilly, the area's local councillor said yesterday.

The riverside Witton Barracks, near the Indooroopilly train station, was recently included on a list of defence land to be sold.

Local state member Scott Emerson (LNP) said the site should be used to build a park and ride facility in the short term.

"I think that in the longer-term plan - especially in terms of what the council have said about the land on the south side of the river there - the duplication of the bridge will occur at some stage in the future," he said.

"And I would hope in about decade's time."

Mr Emerson campaigned heavily on the issue in the 2009 state election and criticised the state government for not adding extra parking at Indooroopilly during a $26.5 million upgrade last year.

Mr Emerson said it was important either Brisbane City Council or the state government bought the site.

But local councillor Jane Prentice (LNP) said council could not afford to buy the site and, even if it did, she would not support adding another bridge to the four bridges that already crossed the river at that point.

"Walter Taylor Bridge is a wonderful old bridge, but at some stage in the future it will have to be replaced," she said.

"As the local councillor, I do not want to see a major new bridge entering our local suburbs as a major arterial road."

The defence land is nearby to the existing Walter Taylor Bridge, which has just one traffic lane in each direction, and is a notorious western suburbs bottleneck.

brisbanetimes.com.au revealed last September that traffic queues back along Honour Avenue at the Chelmer side of the bridge, with morning peak hour traffic inching along at 5.3 kilometres an hour.

Cr Prentice, Brisbane's public transport chair, said the planned Northern Link tunnel from Toowong to Bowen Hills, would relieve traffic pressure from the old Indooroopilly bridge, which was built in 1936.

There were already four cross-river bridges at Indooroopilly - the existing Walter Taylor Bridge, two rail bridges and a new pedestrian and cycling bridge.

Cr Prentice said she did not think a fifth bridge at that location was appropriate, but there were other opportunities for river crossings in the area and she expected them to be debated as the Indooroopilly Neighbourhood Plan was developed.

"I am not an engineer, so far be it for me to suggest where the new bridge should go," she said.

"There are quite a few footprints there already.

"I think it needs to be quite a big project to work out all those river crossings there and I hope some of that will be tackled by the Neighbourhood Plan that is underway."

More than 32,000 vehicles use the Walter Taylor Bridge each day, with some coming from as far as Springfield and Ipswich from traffic unable to get onto the Centenary Motorway.

Brisbane City Council had already obtained a 50-metre easement opposite Witton Barracks - on the Chelmer side of the river - at the Anglican Church-owned Neilsen Home where a support for a bridge could be built.

Cr Prentice said council could not afford Witton Barracks and challenged the federal government to donate it as parkland, as it was selling CSIRO land at Long Pocket and the ABC site at Toowong.

Queensland Transport would not comment yesterday, but Translink said the site was not suitable for a park and ride.

"It should be noted that if this land was offered for sale in the future it would be difficult for this site to handle any significant increase in traffic," a statement said.

Translink said they preferred to build park and ride facilities further from the inner city.

"Park 'n' ride facilities are strategically placed so customers can avoid driving into inner city suburbs or the city and are chosen to reduce the amount of traffic congestion in the inner city suburbs," a spokesman said.

[#Metro]

Might be good for a western busway perhaps?

[Jon Bryant]

... Or a TOD