Brisbane’s Story Bridge could bring back tolls without restoration deal

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Brisbane's Lord Mayor is calling for state and federal funding to restore the story bridge and prevent the council being forced to introduce a toll.

Transcript

00:00Well anyone that's been here, lived here or looked up Brisbane on Google would have seen

00:07this icon right behind me.

00:10It's the Story Bridge and actually most recently it became the first bridge in the world to

00:15offer an accessible bridge climb.

00:17Now this independent report was commissioned by the Brisbane City Council and it was looking

00:22into the long term investment of restoration works for the Story Bridge so that it could

00:28be returned to its former glory and what the report found was the 85 year old bridge was

00:33nearing the end of its operational lifespan.

00:36There are a number of issues that were listed including ailing infrastructure, leakages as

00:42well as parts of concrete underneath the bridge that were virtually peeling away due to deterioration.

00:48Now the report stated that if nothing was done about the issues over the next 15 years,

00:53by 2032, when the Olympic and Paralympic Games roll around, there would need to be a reduced

00:59operational capacity on the bridge.

01:01And then by 2035, that's when freight and public transport would have to cease crossing

01:06the bridge.

01:07And by 2040, that would be the end of the operational lifespan of the Story Bridge.

01:14Now this committee that's been in charge of this report, it's been chaired by Nigel Charmier,

01:19who has been in charge and steered a number of projects in terms of restoration around

01:24Brisbane, including Brisbane City Hall, as well as Anzac Square, has concluded that effectively

01:30the Brisbane City Council no longer has the means to be able to foot a lot of the restoration

01:35bill.

01:36And what they've suggested is three options in terms of funding.

01:39The first is joint funding between the federal and state government alongside the Brisbane

01:44City Council that would need to be agreed upon over the next 15 years.

01:48The second option was to introduce or reintroduce a toll on the bridge.

01:53And that's been likened to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

01:56And the last option is a special levy that would be footed for Brisbane ratepayers.

02:02Now there's been mixed reviews to all three options.

02:05Some have said that they would rather just pay a toll and others say that they would rather

02:09the state and federal government help fund a lot of that project.

02:12certainly many have said that they would rather this issue sorted out sooner rather than later.

02:18I think that one has had a few high purity.

02:19So this is the current policy, which is the congressionaletaan and the意思 called the

02:20scheme association, which i would ratherli in the history of the staff with the

02:22collection of yards.

02:24So it's a really, really special interest, but this is really expensive.

02:26And you can educate the project in this particular field and if

02:27from now onseits that there's the plan in the city is required of experience to give a

02:30mass of thenjoring and that people would have seen the plan.

02:32Back to you, 750 consumers in this particular territory.

02:33It's a very distinctive case of what it impacts on working on there and according to the

02:35foundation outside itself.

02:36So we will...

02:38It'll have to do this really interesting two sets all the joints, the power Vadilla

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