1965 Brisbane Transportation Study Part 1: The Central Freeway

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The centrepiece of Brisbane's freeway plan was the Central Freeway – an orbital freeway surrounding the CBD. It was to pass through the suburbs of Spring Hill, Fortitude Valley, New Farm, Kangaroo Point, Woolloongabba and South Brisbane. The aim of the Central Freeway was to link the city’s major radial freeways and expressways together.



A map of the Central Freeway's planned route, showing interchange locations.

Design
The Central Freeway’s design speed was 50 MPH (80 km/h), and its typical width was to be 6 lanes, with some sections being 8 with the option of going to 12 lanes in the busier sections. Where interchanges were closely spaced, the plan specified the use of an express-collector lane configuration.

Bridges
The Central Freeway proposal specified two new river crossings at South Brisbane and New Farm which would've needed to be built.

South Brisbane River Crossing
At Melbourne Street in South Brisbane and near Castlemaine Street in Milton, the Central Freeway was to divide into two one-way facilities, with clockwise traffic crossing the Brisbane River on a new 1800 ft (550 m)-long bridge, and with anti-clockwise traffic being diverted onto the existing William Jolly Bridge (see 1st photo below). The new bridge, to be called the Merivale Bridge, was to be designed so that it could support future conversion to heavy rail. Photo by E Norcross via ourbrisbane.com.

It is worthwhile nothing that this bridge was built (see 2nd photo above), but as a railway bridge. Vehicles have never been able to use the Merivale Bridge. However, a road bridge running parallel to the Merivale Bridge is now on the cards. Photo by O. Rotzinger via ourbrisbane.com.

New Farm River Crossing
The second river crossing at New Farm was to be six lanes wide and 3000 feet (914 m) long. The New Farm Bridge was to commence at La Trobe St in East Brisbane and was to end at Oxlade Drive in New Farm.

Interchanges
The Central Freeway was to have interchanges with the following freeways and expressways:

• South East Freeway, near Ipswich Road at Woolloongabba
• Riverside Expressway, at Woolloongabba and at Milton
• Eastern Freeway, between Stanley and Vulture Streets in Woolloongabba
• Story Bridge Expressway, at Lytton Rd and La Trobe St in East Brisbane
• Petrie Bight Expressway, between Brunswick and James Streets in New Farm
• Northern Freeway, near O’Connell Tce in Bowen Hills
• North West Freeway, on Gilchrist Ave in Victoria Park
• Western Freeway, at Caxton St in Milton

Additional interchanges with surface streets were to be located at:

• Woolloongabba, at Annerley and Stephens Roads
• Woolloongabba, at Stanley and Vulture Streets
• East Brisbane, at La Trobe St and Lytton Rd
• New Farm, at Merthyr Rd and Villiers St
• Fortitude Valley, at Ann and Wickham Streets
• Bowen Hills, at O’Connell Tce and Hamilton Pl
• Victoria Park, at Bowen Bridge Rd
• Spring Hill, at Gregory Tce and the Wharf Street extension
• Kelvin Grove, at Kelvin Grove Rd
• Milton, at Milton Rd and Coronation Dr
• Brisbane CBD, at Upper Roma St and North Quay
• South Brisbane, at Grey, Melbourne and Merivale Streets

Interchange Maps

Kelvin Grove, showing Western Fwy interchange.


Victoria Park, showing North West Fwy interchange.


Bowen Hills, showing Northern Fwy interchange.


Fortitude Valley, showing Petrie Bight Expressway interchange.


New Farm, showing New Farm Bridge and Story Bridge Expressway interchange.


East Brisbane, showing Eastern Fwy interchange.


Woolloongabba, showing South East Fwy and Riverside Expressway interchange.


South Brisbane (1).


South Brisbane (2), showing Merivale Bridge and the unsual split freeway that was proposed for the area.

Cost of Construction
£27 399 000, with 40% of this being for land acquisitions.

A Staged Implementation
Brisbane's freeway plan was to be implemented in stages between 1965 and 1985. The Central Freeway was no different, and it was to be pieced together as traffic demands grew, and as the rest of the freeway system was completed.

Stage 1 - 1965-1970

• Construct 4 lanes of the Central Freeway from the South East Freeway to a temporary connection with Annerley and Stephens Roads in Woolloongabba.

Stage 2 – 1970-1975

• Construct 4 lanes of the Central Freeway between the South East Freeway and the Story Bridge Expressway with an interchange at its junction with the South East Freeway.
• Develop the Central Freeway between Melbourne Street in South Brisbane and the Northern Freeway and connect with the Riverside Expressway in Milton, which is scheduled for completion during this stage. This section would include construction of the Merivale Bridge.

Stage 3 – 1975-1980

• Build the Central Freeway as a 4-lane section between Annerley Rd and Melbourne Street in South Brisbane, and between the Petrie Bight Expressway and the Northern Freeway.
• Construct the North West Freeway interchange at Victoria Park to connect with the segment of the North West Freeway to be completed at this time.

Stage 4 – 1980-1985

• Construct the remainder of the Central Freeway by adding lanes to the segments between South Brisbane and the Story Bridge Expressway at East Brisbane.
• Complete the final segment of this route between the Story Bridge Expressway and the Petrie Bight Expressway, including the New Farm Bridge.
• Provide 2 additional lanes between the latter facility and the Northern Freeway.

So was any of this built?
Of course, but only a tiny bit.

The portion of this freeway that was constructed was the section between Kelvin Grove Road and O'Connell Tce, Bowen Hills, as the Inner City Bypass (ICB). This road was completed in 2003. Like the Central Freeway, the ICB also has an 80 km/h design speed, and has interchanges at Kelvin Grove Road, Bowen Bridge Road and at Horace St in Bowen Hills, which is close to originally-proposed O'Connell Tce interchange.

The Hale Street arterial road, which has since been incorporated into the Inner City Bypass, while fulfilling the same function, is only a bastardised version of the originally proposed Central Fwy/Riverside Expwy/Western Fwy interchange. Its tight off-ramps and closely spaced interchanges make this one interesting drive! It's for those two reasons that I will never consider the 'upgraded' Hale St as a contstructed section of the Central Freeway.

The North-South Bypass Tunnel (NSBT), which will commence construction shortly, will serve some of the same suburbs that the Central Freeway was going to. It will run from the Pacific Motorway at Woolloongabba (the site of the original Central Fwy/Riverside Expwy/S.E. Fwy interchange) to the Inner City Bypass at Bowen Hills. It will have interchanges at Ipswich Road in Woolloongabba and Shafston Ave (aka Story Bridge Expwy) at Kangaroo Point. While the NSBT will pass under Fortitude Valley, it will not have any ramps to or from surface streets to prevent traffic snarls.

Present-day photos of the proposed interchange locations

Facing north on the Pacific Motorway at Woolloongabba

This picture shows how the present-day Pacific Motorway’s median widens considerably to allow for the interchange with the Central Freeway and the Riverside Expressway at Woolloongabba. This photo faces north, and the CBD is to the north-east. Where the motorway sweeps back around to the right, those are essentially the offramps from the South East Freeway to the Riverside Expressway.

If you look just above the inbound VMS you will see the bridge stub which was to accommodate the ramp from the Central Freeway’s express lanes to the South East Freeway’s express lanes. The South East Busway (far right, with the bus on it!) basically would have been the distributor lanes for this section of the South East Freeway. The idea was to initially have 4 collector lanes and 4 express lanes. The entire South East Freeway was originally constructed as a 4 lane road, with the distributor lanes to be added later. The freeway’s median strip allowed for widening of the express lanes to six lanes, but the geniuses at Main Roads decided in the early 90s that it would be better to just remark 6 lanes without widening the carriageways. So that’s why we don’t have shoulders on many parts of the first 11 km of the Pacific Motorway, but heaps of median space!

Facing south on the Pacific Motorway at Woolloongabba

This view, facing south-east, shows the present-day Pacific Motorway at the Cornwall St/Juliette St exit (Exit 5). This view is about 1 km south of the proposed Riverside Expwy/Central Fwy/South East Freeway interchange. The Cornwall St interchange wasn’t even supposed to exist. The freeway was supposed to take a more direct westerly route, with a partial cloverleaf interchange at O’Keefe St (near Logan Road at Stones Corner). And to top it all off, this section of motorway was supposed to be a collector-distributor set up as well.

Facing south east at the corner of Overend St and Lisburn St in East Brisbane.

That sign (which doesn’t meet QMR standards at all) is right were an offramp from the anti-clockwise Central Freeway was supposed to be built.

Corner of Vulture Street East, Lisburn St and Elfin St in East Brisbane – facing south.

I’m standing right where a ramp was supposed to go from the westbound Eastern Freeway to the anti-clockwise Central Freeway. Elfin St (where the photo was taken from) was supposed to be a service road for the freeway.

Elfin Street, facing north in East Brisbane.

This awfully-dry tree-lined street (thanks to water restrictions and lack of rain), which has a lot nice renovated Queenslander-style homes on it, was to be a service road for the Central Freeway. Just to the right of me would have been the ramp from the westbound Eastern Freeway to the anti-clockwise Central Fwy.

Facing north-east on Lytton Road in East Brisbane.

If built, I would have been standing right underneath the New Farm Bridge. A ramp from the Story Bridge Expressway to the clockwise Central Freeway would have crossed from left to right in this photo.

A block of flats on Lytton Road in East Brisbane.

This entire block of flats lies right in the path of the planned New Farm Bridge. The view faces south, and the CBD and Shafston Ave (aka Story Bridge Expwy) are to the right.

Looking north across the Brisbane River at Mowbray Park.

If built, the New Farm Bridge would be right above me in this photo. It would run between here and directly across from me on the other side of the river in New Farm.

Mowbray Park

This entire park would have been reduced in size or destroyed completely by this bridge’s construction.

Looking east along the Brisbane River at Mowbray Park.

The New Farm Bridge would’ve run from left to right in this photo.

Looking west along the Brisbane River (towards the Valley) at Mowbray Park.

If the Central Fwy were built, and the CBD developed in the same way, you would be able to see all of this from the New Farm Bridge. Four of the Dockside Apartment complexes at Kangaroo Point are in the foreground and the Story Bridge and some residential towers at Petrie Bight are in the background.

Looking north at the corner of Sydney St and Oxlade Dr in New Farm.

The Central Freeway would have been built about one block east (right) of here. I was too lazy to walk that way (they are big blocks!), but it gives you an idea of the sort of properties and scenery that would’ve been affected by the freeway’s construction.

Another view of Sydney St facing north.

Once again, these sorts of streets would be clogged with cars today if the Central Freeway went ahead. Instead its just a bus to and from the nearby CityCat terminal every few minutes.

Facing north on Sydney Street at New Farm Park, in New Farm.

The Central Freeway would be on my right at this point, with it bending to the left and crossing Sydney St further north.

Facing south on Villiers Street in New Farm.

This would be the approximate location of the Villiers Street interchange. The freeway would cross this street further to the south, on the crest of the hill ahead.

Facing west on Kelvin Grove Road near the Normanby Fiveways and Normanby Tunnel.

This photo, taken during peak hour (believe it or not) shows Kelvin Grove Rd, near the Inner City Bypass (you may be able to make out the bridge behind the trees in the distance). If you can make out the overbridge, just imagine that a little bit closer there was a massive 12 lane freeway bridge (express lanes + collector lanes + onramps and offramps) passing over the lanes, and you would have the Kelvin Grove Rd/Western Freeway interchange.

It was disturbingly quiet when I took this photo. But of course, just after took the picture and crossed the road, a ton of cars came hurtling down from the Normanby Fiveways, which is now a regular 4 way signalised intersection thanks to the construction of a tunnel for the fifth ‘way’.

Facing south at Victoria Park.

The North-Western Freeway interchange was to be built right in the middle of that big field. You can see the new section of the Inner City Bypass in the background, which is the only section of the Central Freeway built nearly to plan (i.e. 80 km/h speed limit, 6 lanes with 2.5 m shoulders etc.).

Facing south at the northern portal to the RNA Tunnel on the Inner City Bypass at Herston.

The road running across the top of the tunnel portal is O’Connell Terrace, and this is roughly where the Bowen Hills interchange (with O’Connell Terrace and the Northern Freeway) was to be built.

So that's all folks. I hope you've enjoyed reading this. The next instalment in this series is an article about the Petrie Bight Expressway. Stay tuned.

Trent.