Hornibrook Bridge

Hornibrook Bridge
Hornibrook Highway Bridge Southern Portal, 2012 after the demolition
Coordinates	27°16′43″S 153°04′00″E / 27.278748°S 153.066802°E / -27.278748; 153.066802
Carries	trucks, bicycle
Crosses	Hays Inlet in Bramble Bay
Locale	Brisbane, Queensland
Heritage status	Queensland listed structure
Characteristics
Design	Viaduct
Material	Wood
Total length	2.684 km
Width	7.92 m[1]
No. of spans	294[1]
History
Designer	Sir Manuel Hornibrook
Construction start	8 June 1932[1]
Opened	4 October 1935; 89 years ago (1935-10-04)[1]
Closed	14 July 2010; 14 years ago (2010-07-14)
Location

Hornibrook Highway Bridge
Location of Hornibrook Highway Bridge in Queensland
Location	Hornibrook Highway, Brighton, City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia
Coordinates	27°16′23″S 153°04′16″E / 27.2731°S 153.0712°E / -27.2731; 153.0712
Design period	1919–1930s (interwar period)
Built	1932–1935
Architect	Manuel Hornibrook
Queensland Heritage Register
Official name	Hornibrook Highway Bridge
Type	state heritage (built)
Designated	7 October 1994
Reference no.	601246
Significant period	1930s (fabric) 1935–1979 (historical use for road traffic)
Significant components	pier/s (bridge), kerbing and channelling, pylon/s, office/s, strong room
Builders	Manuel Hornibrook

Hornibrook Bridge is a heritage-listed mostly-demolished road bridge on the Hornibrook Highway over Hays Inlet at Bramble Bay from Brighton, City of Brisbane to Clontarf, City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Manuel Hornibrook and built from 1932 to 1935 by Manuel Hornibrook. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 7 October 1994.^[2]

Handsome art-deco concrete abutment arches frame the entry and exit approaches. Construction of the bridge was important for the growth of the Redcliffe City peninsula and made the commute to Brisbane shorter and quicker, increasing population growth and the number of visitors to the seaside location. The bridge was known colloquially by the locals as the "Humpity Bump" because the road surface of the bridge was so buckled. During king tides, waves would crash into (and sometimes onto) the bridge spraying the cars as they crossed.

The bridge was operated and maintained by a private company and a toll applied until 1975, with toll booths located on the Clontarf (north) end.

The Hornibrook Bridge was the first of three bridges to cross Bramble Bay. The second bridge is the publicly funded (non-tolled) Houghton Highway bridge, which was built with the intention of duplicating the crossing capacity of the two-lane Hornibrook Bridge in the 1970s, but the upgrading of the original Hornibrook Bridge was subsequently found to be uneconomic. The bridge closed to traffic in 1979 with the opening of the Houghton Highway, which had been intended to provide a duplicated crossing. The third bridge, the Ted Smout Memorial Bridge opened to traffic in July 2010, delivering the desired capacity increase and resulting in the demolition of the original Hornibrook Bridge, which had been used as a pedestrian and bicycle only bridge since 1979.