Part of a series of posts by Neil Cownie on The Future of Swanbourne Village

My fear is that without a review of process in the design of a replacement bridge in Swanbourne Village, we could very well end up with a new bridge that resembles that at ‘Third Avenue’, Mt Lawley.

Here you can see what happens when the brief does not call for a design led solution. Note the very ‘compliant’ solution that comprises barriers, screens and concrete in a utilitarian manner. This bridge serves vehicles to pass over the railway line while allowing the route of a cycle path to access below. It achieves little more than these two functions.

What opportunities were lost here? The single sided pedestrian pathway has limited connectivity to the suburban community on the northern side. On the southern side there is a routine pedestrian crossing at a set of traffic lights.

There is no joy, no delight here for passers-by or users of the bridge. Metal screens block any view when passing over the bridge, a lost opportunity here given the potential for a distant view of the City from the bridge. The unsightly screens provide an unnecessary visual cluttering of the bridge.

Concrete barriers abound; separating cars from cars, cars from trains, people from cars and people from bikes. So many barriers in such a small area, where as 20meters down the road there are no barriers between cars, no barriers between cars and trains (other than a fence) and no barriers between cars and people. Why the over regulated need for all these barriers in the location of the bridge?

The experience from the cycle way is an unfortunate series of fences capped with barbed wire, mis-matching retaining walls of reconstituted limestone blocks, concrete walls and brightly painted concrete surfaces. It looks to me like someone finally realised once the bridge and barriers were complete that there was no ‘design’ here at all so we had better paint some bright graphics over some of the concrete.

To me this is what you get if you do not put together a ‘design’ led team of consultants to look at all of the opportunities for each site prior to rolling out a standard utilitarian structural civil design solution catering only for vehicle traffic.

We can not let this sort of solution repeat itself at the location of the Swanbourne Village bridge. This location comprises a complex mix of community needs that reach far beyond the needs of vehicle traffic.

Images by Neil Cownie.

Go back to the The Future of Swanbourne Village

The Bridging Communities Series