BCC submits application for Kangaroo Point Green Bridge

The Brisbane City Council has submitted a development application for the construction of a new green bridge linking Alice Street in the CBD to Scott Street in Kangaroo Point.

Originally proposed in the 1860’s the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge (KPGB) aims to be a world-class gateway to Brisbane’s Central Business District and the Kangaroo Point Peninsula.

According to the development application, several design principals have been applied to the bridge architecture:

• Sustainable, resilient, and cost effective – the bridge integrates and showcases sustainable design principles balanced with whole of life costs.

• Seamless movement – a gateway to the City Centre and Kangaroo Point, the bridge directly connects key inner-city precincts and establishes new desire lines. High quality bridge landings, transitions and public realm are well designed and intuitive, which minimises conflict between different users and transport modes, and supports connections to existing and improved active and public transport networks.

• Inclusive and safe – the bridge design is a convenient, comfortable, and safe connection for all bridge users.

• A world class experience – the bridge and landings take advantage of the unique setting and easy access to inner city lifestyle, employment and living precincts including the City Centre, Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Kangaroo Point and Cliffs and City Reach Waterfront. Spaces and places are carefully designed to be flexible and adaptable to respond to future opportunities and changing community expectations. Public realm enhancements and place-making engages with the river and green spaces.

• Distinctive bridge architecture – the bridge structure is slender, visually permeable, elegant, and efficient celebrating Brisbane’s sub-tropical identity, and river city image. The landings touch lightly on the river’s edge.

• Culturally rich – the bridge design, its landings, connections, and public realm, respond to the rich history, and values associated with the City Centre and Kangaroo Point including Indigenous and European cultural heritage.

The Brisbane City Council states that the overall form of the bridge is conceptualised as a series of threaded jewels suspended over the water, stretching across the Brisbane River with elegance and apparent weightlessness, connecting Kangaroo Point and the City Centre.

Mast

Designed by COX Architecture, the bridge has a simple structural form which prioritises opportunities along the bridge for Pause Points to engage with the river and the City.

“Like a series of individual faceted jewels, the Pause Points are linked by a connecting geometry but each distinctive in form,” COX Architecture.

The height of the mast pairs with the taller buildings in the City, and tapers to the lower residential-scale buildings on the Kangaroo Point bank. The mast is biased to the City side to assist in maintaining views from the Brisbane River and the City Botanic Gardens to the Story Bridge and minimising structure in the view corridor.

The single mast, cable-slay design was chosen as it is markedly different to that of the Story Bridge, allowing the Story Bridge to retain its iconic idenity for the city. The 4-legged mast also allows for a continuous deck and significant pause point around the centre of the bridge structure.

Pause Points

The bridge features five different pause points which allows visitors to pause and take in the views, meet or rest.

• City pylon
• City approach
• Mid span
• Kangaroo Point pylon
• Kangaroo Point approach.

Bridge Deck

Located under the main mast tower, the bridge deck is intended to further enhance the weightless elegance of the bridge by appearing to float through the main mast facilitating uninterrupted movement along the deck, beyond the deck and between pause points

A continuous awning aligned to the Northern edge of the bridge shelters 50% of the deck
from sun and rain.

Additional shading is provided for the viewing platforms at the nodes indicated. Toward the approach of Kangaroo Point, 90% deck cover is required to provide a layer of privacy and visual buffer to the surrounding high-rise residents from bridge users.

If approved by itself, the Brisbane City Council, the KPGB would be the second bridge currently under construction in Brisbane with Queen’s Wharf’s Neville Bonner Bridge taking shape between South Bank and the Queen’s Wharf precinct.

Tell us what you think about this development below in the comment box. The development application for this project, available to view on Brisbane City Council’s Planning & Development Online is A005674527.

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