Roads & Maritime Services has opened a new bridge across the Hunter River in Aberdeen (NSW), while retaining the historic southbound bridge for pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy.
Who: Roads & Maritime Services and Upper Hunter Council
What: The creation of a new dual lane bridge over the Hunter River at Aberdeen (NSW) on the New England Highway. The demolition of the old northbound bridge and the repurposing of the southbound bridge for cyclists and pedestrians.
Why: Allowing for higher mass vehicles to cross the river.
How much? Australian Government invested $400,000 in building new bridge and restoring old southbound bridge.
Until last year, the Fitzgerald Bridge crossing at Aberdeen (NSW) passing the New England Highway over the Hunter River consisted of two bridges, one for each direction. The two bridges were traversed by an average of 8500 vehicles daily.
The southbound bridge, the more historic of the two, was built in 1893. It is a metal lattice truss bridge. At 5.7m wide it was not able to accommodate higher mass vehicles, an issue compounded by the inadequacy of the steel truss design. Meanwhile, the northbound bridge was built in 1986. It was also unable to deal with the higher mass vehicles.
The decision was taken to retain the historic southbound bridge for cyclists and pedestrians while the northbound bridge was demolished and replaced with a two-lane bridge.
“The entire project took approximately 30 months to complete and was split into three parts including building a new two lane bridge, demolishing the old northbound bridge and restoring the old heritage listed bridge for pedestrian and cyclist usage,” said a Roads and Maritime Services spokesperson.
“Restoration of the heritage bridge was carried out over eight months and included repairing the kerbs and replacing the guardrails with safety fencing, resealing the deck and installing new lighting and landscaping, including landscaping of Riverside Park.”
The new bridge
The new two-lane bridge was designed for a 100 year lifespan with flood immunity measures that included raising approaches to the bridge by one metre. The bridge now has a one-in-a-hundred flood event rating.
At 9.4m wide, the new bridge is able to cope with higher mass vehicles. Consideration has also been taken to accommodate users of the river by aligning the piers of the new bridge with the old southbound bridge to help kayakers cross under them.
The new bridge was opened in June 2014. Senator for NSW John Williams said that the work was the culmination of a $43m commitment by the Australian Government to upgrade six bridges across NSW.
“Upgrading these bridges means for the first time, the entire length of the New England Highway in New South Wales—from Hexham near Newcastle to the Queensland border—is suitable for higher mass limit vehicles,” Senator Williams said.
Consulting the community
Extensive community and stakeholder consultation was carried out to reduce the impact to traffic on the New England Highway and to ensure the heritage nature of the 130 year old bridge was preserved said a Roads and Maritime Services spokesperson.
“The upgrade has received positive feedback from the community and the completion of the new bridge has improved freight connectivity for mass limit vehicles,” the spokesperson said.
“Pedestrian safety has also been improved with the newly installed concrete path linking the western side of the new bridge to the old southbound heritage bridge. The path will provide safe access for pedestrians and cyclists using the heritage bridge walkway to the park and facilities on the western side of the new bridge.”
Recycled goods
Upper Hunter Council has been particularly savvy by recycling concrete from its Aberdeen Waste Depot and now the demolished bridge. An estimated 1200 tonnes of concrete was salvaged and used to resurface roads in the Aberdeen area. In total, the council estimated saving $47,000 under the NSW Waste Levy.