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Connecting The CBD to Victoria Park
Connecting Brisbane’s new Stadium at Victoria Park to the rest of the city will pose some challenges, but as Ryan’s recent trip to Adelaide Oval shows, safe, walkable and multi-modal access is vital to ensuring patronage of key sporting infrastructure. With bus access in place via the Inner Northern Busway to QUT or Herston, connecting to the CBD and Spring Hill across the Inner City Bypass will be essential to supporting access to the new precinct.
Opened in March 2014 at a cost of around A$40 million, the 255-metre-long, 8-metre-wide Riverbank Precinct Pedestrian Bridge was a transformative infrastructure investment for Adelaide. The bridge resulted from a 2012 design competition won by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer. Delivered by Taylor Cullity Lethlean, TCL, Aurecon, TZG and McConnell Dowell, the bridge has seamlessly connected the Adelaide Oval, Festival Centre, and Railway Station, transforming fragmented precincts into a unified, pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly civic corridor and enhancing the venue’s role as a year-round destination.
The new Bridge has become a transformative piece of infrastructure, and for Brisbane’s ambitions, it is a model to follow. In our work for Brisbane City Council and SMEC, we looked at The Victoria Park / Barrambin Eastern Bridges component of the Victoria Park Master Plan as Council investigated upgrades and the introduction of new bridges to span over the Inner-City Bypass and the Queensland Rail corridor between Victoria Park and Spring Hill.
With a potential new ‘Olympic’ train station at the site of the Normanby Train Wash and a push to create a walkable boulevard linking the current Gabba precinct with Suncorp Stadium, extending the green spine to Victoria Park becomes a sensible option.
Like the Torrens, the ICB fragments the city, and like the Riverbank Pedestrian Bridge, a new connection will transform a fragmented city into a more cohesive and walkable precinct that maximises our investment in a world-class sporting facility. And as Ben points out, ‘lots of people’ take advantage of being able to walk to major events from Adelaide’s conveniently located and accessible public transport connections.
Learn more about our work here: https://civilprojectpartners.com.au/projects/victoria-park-barrambin-eastern-bridges/