Construction on the Neville Bonner Bridge, part of the $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf casino development in Brisbane’s CBD, is now under way.
The new $100 million pedestrian bridge, the first in 10 years, will link the new hotel development and CBD with the South Bank Parklands directly adjacent.
The bridge, named in honour of Neville Bonner, the first Indigenous Australian elected to federal parliament, will replace the national architecture award-winning Neville Bonner Building, which was demolished to make way for the Queen’s Wharf development.
Bonner was initially appointed to fill a casual Senate vacancy in 1971 and serviced until 1983. In 1979 he was named Australian of the Year.
The bridge is expected to attract 10,000 people each day, using it to cross the river between the parklands and the casino, hotels and public spaces.
The Queen’s Wharf development, being built by Multiplex and delivered by The Star Entertainment Group and Hong Kong-based partners Chow Tai Fook Enterprises and Far East Consortium, is also rapidly taking shape with 10 tower cranes operating within the main site.
When complete the precinct will include four new luxury hotels, more than 50 new bars and restaurants, along with 2,000 residential apartments for the completed major development.
The project will also provide for up to “12 football fields of enhanced public space”.
Victorian company Fitzgerald Constructions, which built Melbourne’s Jim Stynes Bridge, honouring the late Brownlow medal-winning medallist, has been enlisted to construct the 75-metre tall, cable-stayed bridge.
Fencing has now been erected around the site compound in the Cultural Forecourt and construction area, situated between the Wheel of Brisbane tourist attraction and Brisbane River on the Southbank side of the river.
Destination Brisbane Consortium project director Simon Crooks said it was exciting milestone to see the start of works on the bridge, which will play a vital role in driving connectivity between the two iconic precincts.
“We have been working in the city for more than three years but now is the first time we will take works over to South Bank, which is a sign that construction is progressing and is on track.”
The bridge is on track to be complete by the middle of 2022 and open in line with the integrated casino and resort complex later that year.
Originally published by Ted Tabet in The Urban Developer HERE.
