The Tasmanian Government has faced questions from the Greens for its decision to scale back plans for wider shared pedestrian and cycle paths on Hobart’s Tasman Bridge.
While initially attributed to budget constraints, Treasurer Michael Ferguson has now clarified that the project was scrapped due to structural limitations of the aging bridge.
Greens MP Vica Bayley said not moving ahead with the initial designs of including a 3.5-metre-wide shared pathway on both sides of the bridge will only add to traffic congestion in the future.
“The stadium traffic movement and other data shows that the Tasman Bridge is going to be significantly over capacity at times and also relies heavily on a modal shift, people not driving, people walking and people bike riding, particularly from the eastern shore,” he said.
“What is the capacity of the budget going forward to finally invest in what is needed for the Tasman Bridge to actually undertake those active transport upgrades that were planned?”
Ferguson said the decision to scale back the project was not made due to a lack of funds, as Premier Jeremy Rockliff had pointed to on Monday, but rather because of structural issues with the 1960s-built bridge.
“It is not for want of money that that project has had to be re-scoped. It is actually a technical need,” he said.
“Modelling has shown that there is only so much additional infrastructure you can build, including to protect pedestrians with the height that is required, [before] unacceptable strain [is put on] on the bridge.”
He said the government would have been willing to allocate more funds to the project if it was necessary.
“It was not for want of budget, because to achieve the project objectives it was a simple matter of allocating a few more tens of millions of dollars and seeking Federal support to do the same,” he said.
“I think the government would have been quite prepared to do that, but it is actually much more about the structural engineering advice as to what is achievable.”
The revised bridge design will include three-metre-high safety barriers on each water side and a 1.4-metre-high roadside barrier along the length of the bridge.
It will also include localised passing bays at set intervals along the existing walkways and a possible move to one-way pedestrian and cyclist traffic on each side of the bridge.
