On July 6, 1940, when the ribbon was cut on Brisbane's Story Bridge, it was not auspicious time to open a new bridge.

Five days ago, the infamous Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened in Washington State.

In just four months, the structure would separate engineering history through huge swings, as the engineering profession forced the engineering profession at the time.

As one investigator wrote, “Bridge engineering is not generally considered an accurate science.”

In Brisbane, about 60,000 Queenslanders crossed the grand story on opening day. The courier frankly said that despite the toll station, it may still require an excellent 40 vehicles per minute.

Prime Minister William Forgan Smith pays tribute to his designer John Bradfield. The former NSW civil servant died in 1943 and is known for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Smith said Story Bridge is "a lasting monument to his genius and ability."

The prime minister said the huge structure was a decades-long dream that had hired hundreds of originally poor dreams during the Great Depression - costing £1.6 million. The price in 2025 is about $77 million; it is often described today as the bargaining of the structure of Australia's second-renowned bridge.

Eighty-five years later, Brisbane taxpayers face new inaccurate engineering challenges.

Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the Bradfield monument might not last longer - repairs cost millions of dollars than those built in 1940.

After Brisbane City Council’s report on its status this week, Schlinner’s advice is the best option, including begging state and Commonwealth for aid, new tax rates, bringing back tolls for the first time since 1947, or removing and replacing them.

For some time, there was a raucous noise of "problems" on the bridge.

Bicyclists and pedestrians have been banned from entering the bridge since the March hurricane, with little explanation.

The mayor said this week there were concerns that any weight bolts on the pedestrian road could cause "scattering" to knock a piece of concrete off the bottom. He said that a protection network will be installed below. Heavy trucks continue to cross the main parts of the bridge regularly.

Brisbane is one of Australia's most dependent cities on cars. The space of Bicycle Belinda Ward says the bridge is one of the few safe bike routes in the city. Its two small cycling routes have about twice the six lanes per hour.

“At the same time, it is obvious that the main parts of the bridge are closed and open to people who stroll and cyclize,” she said.

There are no estimated costs for reconstruction. But Schlinner compared the project to other bridge renovations that cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ward said it was just to repair the inner city's highway, which would be a huge sum of money. She said its users should be doing the repairs as they did in the last century.

“To be honest, it seems wrong for me that people in the Queensland area or other Australian states should pay for the ongoing funding of Story Bridge.”

"So why not cause any damage to this? Then people might consider using the Clem Jones tunnel or on the portal bridge."

Matt Burke, professor of transportation planning at Griffith University, said the bridge is actually inevitably going to need to be rethinked, which could be a pair of separate bus lanes.

He said even if the bridge was removed, it would not cause disaster. Cities that demolish highways (such as London’s Hammer Bridge) usually expect a significant increase in congestion, but instead find that “traffic is just dissipating.”

"More and more people are caught on public transport, and when they deliver and other things, people make adjustments. The kids are told you are not being driven to school, you are catching the bus, and now it's sunny and just taking all kinds of small behavioral steps."

He said the six-lane highway is “a scarce road space in the inner city,” he said.

The City Council is now planning a new temporary walking and cycling path to attach to the bridge. It is expected to be completed “within a few months”.

Brisbane City Council is the largest local government in the southern hemisphere. But even facing financial troubles has cut hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs to make up for the budget.

The council opposition criticized Schrinner this week for going beyond beleaguered projects such as several other bridges and over-budget road projects. Opposition leader Jared Cassidy said the bridge was considered a "risk structure" since 2016 but was ignored.

But the mayor said the bridge was designed to last for a century and he needed state and Commonwealth cash to get it beyond that date.

"It is unacceptable to have Story Bridge have funerals during its 100th birthday. We already have the skills to repair it, we will repair it, and we are all very proud of our creations."

The Commonwealth government has provided a helping hand, partially funding a business case for a full renovation. It will expire in mid-2027. State and federal ministers said this week they only consider further support for the project once it is completed.

Burke of Griffith said repairs could cost as much as a billion dollars.

"It won't be cheap, and it will be very destructive. That's what happened to the assets of this era," he said.

"The risk of collapse over the next 10 to 15 years is material. Australians have high standards for maintenance on their road systems, bridges, etc. We do not tolerate a lot of risks."