Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges

History

Construction on the Gateway Bridge commenced on 5 June 1980. The construction of the bridge started before the design was completed, to fast track its construction. It was officially commissioned on 11 January 1986. On this day 200,000 people crossed the bridge by foot as part of the opening activities.

In 1986 the bridge carried an average of 12,500 vehicles per day. In 2001 the bridge was crossed by 27 million vehicles (approximately 73,975 vehicles per day). In early 2010 the single bridge was carrying an average of 100,000 vehicles per day.

The annual Bridge to Brisbane fun run has begun from the southern entrance to the bridge for the past decade.

Design

In 1979 a tender was called by the Queensland Main Roads Department for a new bridge crossing of the Brisbane River. The conforming design main span was designed as a balanced cantilever with two raised post tensioned concrete compression stays located on the median & over each of the two main piers to support the 260 metre span. Due to the proximity of the Brisbane Airport, an overall structural height constraint was provided due to aircraft flight path & clearances. This constraint ruled out the possibility of a conventional Cable Stay Bridge due to the height of the pylons that would be required. Due to cost considerations an alternative design concept was proposed by Bruce Ramsay (Manager Engineering) of VSL. This alternative design required a world record main span of 260m for a free cantilever concrete box girder bridge. The concept was adopted by one of the tenderers - Transfield Queensland Pty.Ltd. who were subsequently awarded the project on the basis of this alternative. It held the record span of 260m for over 15 years. The box girder is still the largest prestressed concrete, single box in the world, measuring 15m deep at the pier, with a box width of 12m and an overall deck width for the six lanes of 22m.

As stated above the bridge owes its distinctive shape to air traffic requirements restricting its height to under 80 metres (260 ft) above sea level (all features of the bridge including light poles) coupled with shipping needs requiring a navigational clearance of 55 metres (180 ft).

The bridge has six lanes (originally three lanes in each direction, which were subsequently reconfigured to six lanes of northbound traffic after opening of the duplicate bridge).

The bridge was financed by funds borrowed by the Queensland Government, and as a result, users of the bridge pay a toll when crossing the bridge in either direction. The bridge is operated and maintained by Queensland Motorways, which is a Queensland Government-owned enterprise.

The total length is 1,627 metres (5,337 ft). This is divided into a southern approach of 376 metres (1,234 ft), a northern approach of 731 metres (2,398 ft) and the three central spans of 520 metres (1,706 ft). The record main span is 260 metres (853 ft) long by 64.5 metres (212 ft) high, which is equivalent to a 20-storey building. A total of 150,000 tonnes (165,000 short tons) of concrete was used to construct the bridge.

The original design did not include a safety fence to prevent suicide attempts and base jumping. Three-metre high safety fences attached to the top of the concrete traffic barrier were later installed to prevent these incidents occurring. Anti-climbing screens are part of the second bridge's security features.

Duplication

In 2005, a major upgrade of the Gateway Motorway was announced. Leighton Holdings and joint venture partner AbiGroup won the contract to upgrade the Motorway. The A$1.88 billion Gateway Upgrade Project includes the duplication of the Gateway Bridge and upgrades to 20 km (12 mi) of the Gateway Motorway from Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Road in the south to Nudgee Road in the north. The bridge duplication is the largest bridge and road development in Queensland's history. The duplicate bridge was specified to have a design life of 300 years.

To the south, the upgrade includes widening 12 km (7 mi) of the Gateway Motorway from 4 to 6 lanes. To the north, it involves the construction of the 7 km (4 mi) Gateway Motorway deviation, an entirely new six-lane motorway between the Gateway Bridge and Nudgee Road. The deviation runs east of the original motorway through Brisbane Airport Corporation land and provides an alternative means of access to Brisbane Airport (the only effective access from the south). The new bridge provides a bicycle path unlike the first crossing.

The Wynnum Road upgrade was completed on 13th July 2007 and 2 additional southbound lanes between the Port of Brisbane Motorway and Wynnum Road completed in late 2007. Four of six lanes of the new Gateway Motorway deviation were opened in July 2009. All works south of the river were complete by the end of 2009 after 10 years of constant roadwork and traffic disruption. The final concrete pour linking the sides of the new bridge was made in late October 2009. A total of 748 concrete segments, which are supported by 17 piers, were placed for the new bridge.

The duplicate bridge was completed in May 2010 along with the remaining lanes of the Gateway Motorway deviation.

In October 2010, then Minister for Main Roads, Craig Wallace, announced that the original course of the Gateway Motorway via Eagle Farm would be renamed to Southern Cross Way, after Sir Charles Kingsford Smith's aircraft, the Southern Cross, which landed at Eagle Farm in 1928, and so as to avoid confusion with the newly opened Gateway Motorway deviation. The new Gateway Motorway deviation was given the name Gateway Motorway. However, like the renaming of the bridges themselves, the change to Southern Cross Way was not without controversy, attracting criticism from the then Shadow Minister for Main Roads and Transport, Fiona Simpson.

Refurbishment of the existing bridge was completed in November 2010.