Bridging the Island

A Redland City Bulletin published and article looking at how island fire risk can be reduced. Author Brian Williams states Redland City Council “owns 475.1 hectares of land on Russell Island, of which 426.6 hectares is conservation land. Russell is about 8km long by 3km wide.” (page 3. Wednesday February 01, 2017).

The Moreton Bay Combined Islands Association believes in part that the building of a bridge to Canaipa (Russell Island) will improve emergency response to island fires.

In this article Brian Williams states

“A bridge was first promoted and then dropped in the mid- 1980’s because it was not viable. In 2010, council commissioned consultants GHD to study island access.

The cheapest bridge would cost about $114 million and require annual revenue of about $8.5 million to break even.

It would need 6.25 million trips or $17 000 trips per day annually to break even after 25 years…. Russell Islanders using the bridge would arrive on the mainland in the middle of nowhere – Little Rocky Point North at Woongoolba – 17 km from the nearest major shopping centre at Beenliegh” (page 6. Wednesday February 01, 2017).