CONCRETE BARRIER - THE RIVERSIDE EXPRESSWAY & THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRISBANE'S NORTHBANK

Proposed plan of the Queens Wharf Northbank Project

The development of the elevated riverside expressway in the 1970's may have alleviated the traffic congestion problems of the day but its construction has formed a concrete barrier along our city's river edge, making the development of the Northbank river edge a complex urban design issue. The latest proposal for Northbank is the Queen's Wharf development which is focused on enticing tourists to Brisbane through the construction of new landmark buildings along the city side of the riverside expressway. This proposed multi-million dollar development still leaves the question of how do we facilitate a seamless connection between the existing CBD and the Northbank river edge when every access path will be exposed to the heaving underbelly of the elevated expressway?

Neylan Architecture has hypothesised this question and believes that it is short sighted to only consider options for Northbank which are based on the long-term retention of the elevated expressway.  

Other cities have faced similar problems in the past; both Portland and San Francisco have removed elevated freeways where it was recognised that specialised vehicular arteries do not represent the highest and best use for potentially valuable waterfront real estate. Our concern is that current proposals for Northbank – by their accommodation of and working around the existing structures – will mean that there will be no future chance of removing the elevated expressway and reconnecting the riverfront directly with the life of the CBD. It is our view that building over and around the elevated expressway is a poor compromise – both for the new buildings / public amenities and for the ongoing use of the expressway. 

The concept of building vehicular tunnels is no longer foreign to Brisbane with our 3rd road tunnel due to be completed next year and a new Bus / Rail tunnel being proposed to connect Boggo Road to Victoria Park. The current elevated riverside expressway could be replaced with a ‘riverside’ tunnel which would then allow for a seamless connection from the CBD to the river edge of Northbank. A new ‘riverside’ tunnel could be incorporated into the proposed Bus / Rail tunnel which is scheduled to run along a very similar route to the current riverside expressway.