Transcript - Press Conference, Kangaroo Point Bridge

ADRIAN SCHRINNER: Well, it's a special day for Brisbane, it’s not often that a new bridge is opened up. And this year, we've had three bridges opened up on the Brisbane River, the Breakfast Creek Bridge at the start of this year, the privately funded Neville Bonner bridge in August, and today, the Kangaroo Point Bridge, which is the biggest and most strategic of all the bridges.

I want to thank the federal government for seeing the value of this infrastructure and helping us fund it. It would not have happened without a partnership. This goes to show what is possible when levels of government work together, and particularly as we head towards the 2032 games, this is what needs to happen. More of it needs to happen - partnerships between different levels of government to make things happen that benefit the people of Brisbane and Queensland. This bridge will be used by 1000s of people a day. Every person that uses it is one fewer car trip on the road. Someone that doesn't need to drive their car to get into the city or to get to Kangaroo Point, and that makes a difference in a city that's growing like Brisbane. 

I also want to thank the contractors as well, BESIX Watpac, who have done a fantastic job. Just shortly after the project started, this worksite was impacted by the 2022 flood, and that caused significant delays and extra costs in the project. In fact, some of the barges and cranes that were used on our bridge had to be diverted up the river to help remove the Drift restaurant from Coronation Drive bikeway there. So there was an impact in terms of time associated with this project, but I want to thank the contractors for working with us on that project to make sure it was delivered. It's a fantastic outcome.

The other thing that I wanted to say as well is that for every person, for every person that uses this bridge a walk under the restaurant, and they'll see that there's an income source for this bridge which will help maintain it into the future. And that is unique. There are not too many bridges anywhere that have a source of income that help pay for the maintenance on an ongoing basis. And so when you enjoy a meal up in that restaurant you're helping to fund the future of infrastructure in the city, and that’s a wonderful thing I'll hand over to Catherine King now. 

CATHERINE KING: Thanks very much, Lord Mayor. And what a fantastic day for Brisbane. The Kangaroo Point bridge is open. This has been a really significant piece of infrastructure. The Federal Government has been very pleased to partner with the City of Brisbane on this project. Great infrastructure connects people north to south. It actually provides the opportunity for active transport, for people to run, to walk, to cycle, to scoot over this bridge, whether it be on your daily commute or whether it also be for exercise, opening up new vistas of this beautiful city. This is an incredibly important project. As I said, it's going to take cars off the road, less people on the ferries, but also means that really for the North and South, providing that really important new connection point, 160 years in the making, it is such a privilege to be part of the opening today, there'll be kids going across this for the first time who will be taking their own kids and their grandchildren across this bridge, because it's going to stand for generations to come. 

Can I thank very much. Lord Mayor Schrinner has been a terrific partner with the Federal Government to work on this project, great advocate for the City of Brisbane, and it's a really great opportunity to work closely as the federal level of government for those projects, and I'm sure he'll have many, many asks to come. 

Can I also thank very much the contractors on this bridge, the fact that we've had so many workers building and local workers building such an important project, not an easy project at all, working with a river that has the vagaries of flooding from time to time, but also, really quite a complex engineering feat. So, congratulations to the contractors I'm going to hand over to them shortly to talk a little bit about the engineering of this bridge and the way in which the project unfolded. 

CONTRACTOR: When BESIX Watpac embarked on the journey of building the Kangaroo Point Bridge, we wanted to ensure there was a Brisbane bridge built by Brisbane. It's pleasing that the majority of the subcontractors that worked on the project were from South East Queensland and almost half from the local government area of Brisbane. The other important point about this project is we had over 80 subcontractors, 1800 workers who worked almost 760,000 hours on this bridge in a painstaking way, despite all the challenges to deliver what we have today and to be here today for the opening of this fantastic legacy project for Brisbane is a real testament to the people of Brisbane who worked on it, and the legacy will continue, not just in the infrastructure we have, but the people who have worked on this job and the know how and the technical expertise that now resides in Brisbane for building projects of this nature. We can't thank enough our contractors, they toiled away six days a week, three shifts a day, to ensure that we're able to come here today and open the bridge. And we're really proud to have been involved with the Brisbane City Council to deliver this incredible project. Thank you. 

CATHERINE KING: Any questions? 

JOURNALIST: We don't have any indication of crowd numbers? 

UNKNOWN SPEAKER: We'll be able to tell you in a little while, but we’ve got counters there. 

JOURNALIST: We'll get the Lord Mayor back in, I think. So this project. I mean, how important is it to the city? 

ADRIAN SCHRINNER: Well, Brisbane is a city that historically has been divided by the river. It's why we refer to ourselves as Northsiders or Southsiders. And new connections are really important in Brisbane, because they affect the way that people move around the city. And this new connection will change the way that people move between the north side and the south side. It also connects the highest density suburb outside of the CBD, which is Kangaroo Point, directly into the CBD. So there's 1000s of people living in Kangaroo Point. They don't need to use a car anymore. They can either walk across the bridge, or they can catch a ferry and have direct access to where they need to go. And so there's really a good reason why this bridge connects to living areas of the city and working areas of the city that need a connection. It's why it's been talked about for 160 years, and I'm proud that we're able to deliver it. We delivered it in partnership, and we're looking forward to future opportunities to work forward in partnership with the federal and state governments. 

JOURNALIST: How does it feel to see so many people crossing that bridge this morning, after it's been talked about for such a long time? 

ADRIAN SCHRINNER: Well, it's clear that the community has been waiting, and they love the opportunity to try out the new bridge. As Minister King said, there's young kids that will be crossing this bridge that will bring their children across the bridge in the future. This is a bridge that's been built to last, and it's a bridge that will serve many generations to come. 

JOURNALIST: It was originally meant to cost $190 million. It's been delivered at $288 million. How do you explain that blowout? 

ADRIAN SCHRINNER: Look, I think it's clear to see that any major project is under cost pressure. We've had a global inflation crisis, and this particular project, as well, was impacted by the 2022 flood, which caused additional costs and delays. But having said that, when we identified that there was going to be pressures on the budget, we sat down and negotiated a new deal with the contractor, BESIX Watpac. This new deal switched from a cost plus project effectively Council paying all the bills to a guaranteed maximum price contract, and that was done specifically because we knew the project was under cost pressures. The guaranteed maximum price that was locked in was $299m we brought the bridge in at $288m so more than $10 million under that guaranteed maximum price. So, by being flexible and by negotiating with the contractor and having that good working relationship, we were able to make sure that we minimized cost pressures on the bridge and delivered a great outcome.

JOURNALIST: So do you think it represents value for money for ratepayers? 

ADRIAN SCHRINNER: Look 100% I know that in 10 years time, people will look back at this bridge and think that was good value for money, just as we look back at other bridges that have been built, they always appear to be costly at the time, but in hindsight, when you look at the value that it delivers, and infrastructure never gets cheaper over time. It always gets more expensive. And when you delay a project, it gets more expensive. And so, building it now was the right time, delivering it now is the right time. And the reality is this will be a wonderful asset for the community of Brisbane going forward, that will last generations, and I think that people will see that value. 

JOURNALIST: Just on another matter today, you've put out some warnings about flooding over the coming months. Talk us through those. 

ADRIAN SCHRINNER: I think the critical thing that people need to be aware of is that the ground in Brisbane and South East Queensland is fully saturated. We've had much more rain than is normal in November and the first half of December, the ground is saturated. And that means any short sharp storms can cause flash flooding, because the rain will not soak into the ground, it will run directly off into drains and creeks, and we know how quickly that can occur. We've seen a couple of weekends in a row unexpected downpours that have caused some flash flooding. This is something that I'm asking the people of Brisbane to be prepared about ultimately, as we go into this storm summer season, we know that storms can come any day, and we know that in different parts of the city, they'll get different levels of rainfall. Some parts of the city will get low rainfall, other parts will get extremely high rainfall. This is the nature of Brisbane. This is the nature of weather in Brisbane. But if you're living in one of those low-lying areas, you need to be prepared for flash flooding, and that means basic things like, don't park your car in an area that could flood. We saw that yesterday in stones corner, where cars were flooded from some short, sharp flash flooding. It also means that if your house is built on stilts and you're storing things underneath, be careful about what's stored in an area that could flood. These type of simple things can save people 10s of 1000s of dollars when it comes to being prepared. Move the items to a higher level, don't park your car in an area that could flood. These are sort of practical bits of advice that can help people save 10s of 1000s of dollars in the case that it floods.