Article: The cost of rebuilding Brisbane's iconic Riverwalk will top $40 million

[ozbob]

From the Courier Mail click here!

The cost of rebuilding Brisbane's iconic Riverwalk will top $40 million

REBUILDING Brisbane's floating Riverwalk could cost ratepayers at least $40 million.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman yesterday renewed his promise to replace the troubled icon after it broke away in spectacular fashion during floods in the Brisbane River.

He said rebuilding the 850m structure, which originally ran near Howard Smith Wharves to New Farm, would be much more costly now than when it was completed for about $17 million in 2003.

Estimates put the cost at $40 million but Cr Newman said the design would be different this time around to cut the bill to ratepayers.

"Every year . . . it costs us $300,000 to actually keep it floating,'' he said.

"This year it was going to cost $750,000 and next financial year we were projecting at least $4 million for a major amount of rebuild work on it.

"It has been a very expensive thing and if we are going to rebuild it as a floating walk we need to get the design right next time.''

One project unlikely to be put back on the drawing board in the aftermath of the flood is the ill-fated North Bank precinct.

A Brisbane City Council report found the $1.7 billion project's intrusion into the Brisbane River would have made the floods far more dangerous and destructive and cost the community an extra $270 million in property losses.

The report said river levels would have been 54cm higher along a 20km stretch between the CBD and Fig Tree Pocket in the western suburbs if North Bank had been present.

This would have swamped another 262 homes and 107 businesses that escaped flooding.

North Bank, which was canned in 2008, would have also increased water flow from 2m a second to 3m a second, posing safety risks and causing significant erosion at South Bank.

Large amounts of silt would have been trapped underneath the project, which would have been repeatedly struck by large floating debris, according to the report's projections.

"It is beyond doubt that that total North Bank development as proposed will cause significant increases in flood levels,'' it said.

The modelling for the 2008 report by the North Bank Taskforce was based on a so-called Defined Flood Event, similar to the 4.46m peak level at the Brisbane city gauge at the peak of the recent disaster.

The report's author, retired water engineer Colin Apelt, yesterday believed any future development at the site would now be curbed because of the floods.

"Someone will bring it up again, but I think this flood event will mean it will be a very long time because people's memories are so sharp now,'' he said.

University of Queensland head of civil engineering, Professor Peter Dux, also said any future development at the site would have to consider the issue of intruding into the river.

Planning Minister Stirling Hinchliffe declined to  comment.

[#Metro]

Don't make it float! Waste of money!
Build it above the water, and there can be a single floaty section to allow boats through.

[ozbob]

Courier Mail --> Riverwalk flood disaster foretold in report

CITY Hall was told the floating Riverwalk was in danger of breaking up well before floodwaters washed it from its concrete anchors on January 13.

A briefing report compiled for Brisbane City Council in July last year identified the 850m-long floating walk was in a poor state and could break up without intervention.

It gave a damning assessment of the $17 million icon's structural soundness ....

[ButFli]

They say that the gate was only used once a year. I say that the residents of that section of river have voted with their feet (or flippers) and have told us they don't use their boats. I say screw the floating-walkway-with-gate idea and build something of the permanent-boardwalk-style. The problem in this most recent flood was two-fold. One was that the walkway was lifted up high on its guideposts meaning far less force was required to break free. The other was that because it floated water level it snagged a bunch of other pontoons, logs and other junk. A permanent above-water walkway should avoid both these things. If the residents simply must have boats then build an arched section that they may cruise under.

[#Metro]

Controversial idea: why not build the boardwalk, but attach a marina or docking to it on the river side section of the boardwalk. That way the boardwalk can be built closer to the river bank, it can be made rigid, and everyone who has a boat can get access to it. You'd need some kind of security, but it might be possible.

[Golliwog]

Or you could just build it as a fixed one along the same part of the water the floating on went through and still have the opening gate thing for boats just like they did. Or build it closer in and have the boats coming off of the walkway itself, and the residents can have walkways down from their houses to the walkway.

[ozbob]

Brisbanetimes --> Newman floats idea of Riverwalk going to ground