THE University of Queensland (UQ) will not support or cooperate in the construction of a four-carriageway bridge and busway through the heart of its St Lucia campus.
In its submission to the Brisbane City Council’s Draft Impact Assessment Study of the proposed busway, UQ strongly supports a “truly green bridge” limited to pedestrians, cyclists and small electric vehicles.
“The University, however, will not support a public transport solution which requires a large area in the heart of the St Lucia campus to become a public transport corridor,” the submission says.
“We are intensely disappointed that there has been no meaningful discussion or analysis of the impact of the proposed solution on the St Lucia campus or of alternatives to this grandiose and expensive scheme which has been incorrectly and misleadingly labelled as a ‘Green Bridge’.
The submission also noted -
• Traffic from the bridge would impact on 2km of campus roads and have a hugely deleterious impact on the amenity of the campus and surrounding suburbs.
• The project would apparently require the widening of long stretches of road along the UQ parklands and the removal of mature trees.
• UQ roads are used heavily by joggers, cyclists and walkers and the busway would raise safety concerns.
• There is no guarantee the bridge would not be used in future for general vehicular traffic or that it would be policed adequately to prevent cars using it in the short term.
• The Council has produced no evidence the bridge would reduce car traffic to the campus. In fact, the proposed thoroughfare would bring people to St Lucia who would otherwise have no reason to be there.
“(The proposal) reinforces the view that what the Council is seeking is not just to provide additional public transport to the University but to establish a major transport throughway linking the suburbs south of the river to those to the north and west,” the submission says.
“We urge the Council to make public the traffic studies upon which this preferred solution was based so that the conclusions which have been drawn from these studies can be exposed to public debate and objective analysis.”
The University committed itself to continuing to work with the Council to improve public transport access to the St Lucia campus.
It believes one or more genuine green bridges combined with a public transport solution could improve access from the South without turning a major community facility into a bus thoroughfare.
The full UQ submission is available at
www.uq.edu.au/about/greenbridge
For further information, contact UQ Communications on 3365 6060 or (0413) 458 317
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