A Brisbane City Council project to repaint the Story Bridge has blown out from its original five-year, $80 million budget into major maintenance works spanning 13 years.
The 82-year-old landmark's first complete paint job since the 1930s was announced by former lord mayor Graham Quirk three years ago.
After initial difficulties with unexpected costs from potential contractors, the project is well underway with an expanded cost of $128 million up until 2032.
Carrying about 100,000 vehicles per day, the Story Bridge is a key link across the Brisbane River between Fortitude Valley and Kangaroo Point and is regularly lit up to highlight social causes.
The council's infrastructure chair, Andrew Wines, said the original $80 million budget was for a "smaller-scale repaint project", which the council realised was not ambitious enough to ensure the bridge was safe for coming decades.
Mr Wines said the project was "one of the more expensive projects" the council had tackled in recent years, impacted by increased global costs for construction materials.
The project now includes repairs and strengthening, re-coating of the steel beams, footpath upgrades and a specialist containment system to protect the public from the bridge's old lead paint.
Last year the council announced the installation of scaffolding and three customised, moveable maintenance platforms that will permanently hang under the bridge for future maintenance projects.
A specialised lead paint removal team also needs an airlock cleaning station, specialised scaffolding to hold that station, and a fully air-conditioned capsule to keep the hazardous materials contained.
"You can stand in these spaces and touch the under-portion of the bridge where the cars drive over, and each and every one of these surfaces has been stripped back and repainted with a water-resistant paint surface to make sure this metal structure lasts."
Workers will gradually move up the entire structure over the years, Mr Wines said, where some traffic impacts would be felt.
Since the 2018-19 financial year, the council has spent $17.1 million on the restoration project, while anticipated future costs between 2022-23 and 2030-31 total $132.2 million.
Opposition leader Jared Cassidy said the "eye-watering" cost was for a "poorly managed, inner-city, black hole project from the LNP".
"The LNP has been in charge of this council for nearly two decades and has failed to maintain our city’s assets," Mr Cassidy said.
"And that neglect is now costing residents hundreds of millions of dollars in extensive repair works."
The Story Bridge took five years to build, opening in 1940, after being commissioned as a work-generating project during the Great Depression.
The bridge will be repainted in its traditional grey – a colour freely available in the 1930s, Mr Wines said.
