Project History

After investigation, Brisbane City Council voted to build Australia’s first pedestrian, cycle and bus bridge. The bridge links The University of Queensland's (UQ) St Lucia campus and Dutton Park.  

Community consultation

Consultation was conducted in November 2002 and again in 2004. Almost 21,000 residents responded to the citywide brochure survey with eight in ten people supporting the proposal for a bridge. Within these results, seven out of ten people voted for a bus, pedestrian and cycle bridge.

Construction

Council awarded John Holland a contract to design, construct and maintain the $55.5 million cable-stay bridge and associated works.

Construction on the cable-stayed bridge started in March 2005, as a cooperative risk-share agreement between principal contractors, John Holland and Council.

March 2005 A temporary load-out jetty was established on the Dutton Park side of the river for loading of construction material onto barges.
April 2005 The Aquila barge arrived on site. This barge played a vital role in the construction of the bridge deck.
Earthworks began for the new busway through Dutton Park.
May 2005 Construction started on the tower foundations on the Dutton Park side of the river. Works on the UQ side took place over the same period but two weeks behind. Each of the tower foundations were buried more than 30 metres into the rock under the riverbed to ensure the stability of the bridge.
August 2005 The first stage of tower construction involved constructing the towers from the pile cap up to the eventual bridge deck level, a height of 15 metres.
January 2006 With the base of the towers completed, the deck at the towers were the first stage of bridge deck construction.
Each section of deck frame, was floated on a barge from the load-out jetty.
February - August 2006 Following completion of the first stage of the deck, construction of the towers continued above the bridge deck level.
August 2006

With the towers completed, the remaining bridge deck was constructed. This was done in stages starting at each pier and included:

  • pre-assembling the deck steel framework
  • splicing the framework into the completed deck sections 
  • install cables from tower to deck 
  • install pre-cast deck panels 
  • stressing the cables to support the deck

On 21 August 2006 the two sides of the bridge deck met in the middle of the river.
October - December 2006 Final stressing involved using hydraulic cable pull to make adjustments to the tension in each of the cable stays.
In early November, two layers of asphalt were laid on the busway. Work continued on bridge lighting, solar canopies and handrails.
17 December 2006 The Eleanor Schonell Bridge was officially opened and named. Around 5000 people were the first to cross the bridge raising money for the Cerebral Palsy leagure and other local charities.

 next...

Print