The Captain Cook Bridge is a

road bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

that carries the Pacific Motorway across the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, in the state of

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It was built exclusively for vehicular traffic and was completed in late 1972. The bridge had its naming ceremony on 13 December 1972, with it opening in January/February 1973. Shortly before it was opened to vehicular traffic, a once only pedestrian walk event across the bridge was held on 21 January 1973, organised by the Rotary Club of Stones Corner. The bridge crosses at the South Brisbane Reach of the river, linking Gardens Point in the

Brisbane central business district Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is also colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD", "the city", or simply "town". The CBD is located on a point ...

on the north side to Kangaroo Point and

South Brisbane South Brisbane is an inner southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , South Brisbane had a population of 14,292 people. Geography South Brisbane is on the southern bank of the Brisbane River, bounded to the nor ...

on the southside.

Location and features

Captain Cook Bridge is constructed as a multispan, precast prestressed concrete free-cantilever bridge with drop-in mid-spans. Comprising a dual carriageway that creates two separate bridges, one for each direction of traffic, heading north–south over the Brisbane River. Each bridge carries four lanes of traffic in one direction and links the M3 Pacific Motorway to the M3

Riverside Expressway The Riverside Expressway is part of the Pacific Motorway that runs through Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is located on the western side of the Brisbane CBD and is made up of various bridges and overpasses. The North Bank development was ...

. It is the main route from the city's south into the

. At the time of completion, the main span of held the world record for this type of structure for a period of three months, when it was superseded by the Harada Bridge in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

with a span of . The structure is Queensland's busiest traffic bridge with more than one million vehicles crossing it weekly in 2007. Downstream from the Captain Cook Bridge is the

Story Bridge The Story Bridge is a heritage-listed steel cantilever bridge spanning the Brisbane River built to carry vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the northern and the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the long ...

, while the

Goodwill Bridge The Goodwill Bridge is a pedestrian and cyclist bridge which spans the Brisbane River in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The bridge connects the South Bank Parklands in South Brisbane to Gardens Point in the Brisbane CBD. The Goodwill B ...

is the next crossing upstream. Concerns were raised in 2007 about the structure's integrity after it was revealed that contractors who attached a gantry to the bridge had drilled numerous holes which had damaged steel reinforcement bars. After investigations were completed it was concluded that the damage was insignificant as only 57 vertical steel bars out of had been cut.

Upgrades

A maintenance project, started in late 2019, and estimated to cost $26 million, was still ongoing in July 2022.

References

External links

* {{Brisbane bridges navigation Bridges completed in 1972 Bridges over the Brisbane River Concrete bridges in Australia Road bridges in Queensland Box girder bridges in Australia Kangaroo Point, Queensland Brisbane central business district South Brisbane, Queensland 1972 establishments in Australia

Location and features

Upgrades

See also

References

External links