You can almost hear the sigh of relief from Wagga Wagga residents, as Wednesday’s re-opening of the Eunony Bridgetakes almost 5000 vehicle movements a day out of the city’s CBD.
But the newly improved bridge will also play a crucial role in the development and use of the Bomen precinct and the rail intermodal freight hub.
The $10.6 million upgrade was a seven-day-a-week undertaking that clocked up 40,000 hours of work in just six months – a project like this would usually take eight months or more.
What is more the original bridge finished in 1975 was a totally unique design – and the task of upgrading one of the most complex encountered by the design staff.
Wagga Wagga City Council infrastructure supervisor Matt Casley said the bridge – which is now 50 per cent wider – now had a lifespan of 100 years and was rated as SM1600 bridge, which means it can cater for the hefty loads likely to be headed to Bomen in the future.
Damian McConville, the project manager for BMD Constructions, said this was one of the most challenging projects on which he’s ever worked.
“It was a very technical project and the most challenging was the demolition. We found that the drawings we had were from 1975 and were slightly misleading and were unclear on some of the details.
“Some of the stuff we couldn’t identify until we commenced the demolition and then we had to alter our procedures and our processes to ensure the works were carried out to a highdegree of safety.
“Everything about this bridge was bespoke. The entire bridge design was a one-off, so we engaged a consultant from Melbourne who assessed the existing structure and then we liaised with them and came up with a design that was a one-off.
“Everything was purely for this bridge. We had bespoke form work and a cantilevered platform which was designed especially for us and you can see from the finished productthat it’s 50 per cent wider than the original bridge. It’s quite an achievement.
The upgrade was funded jointly by state and federal governments, as well as Wagga Wagga City Council.
Member for Wagga Wagga, Dr Joe McGirr, has welcomed the reopening of the bridge, which he describes as critical not only for the development of the city, but for the whole region.
“As I’ve said on countless occasions, if we aren’t growing as a city and a region, then we’re going backwards. It’s so refreshing to talk about growth, and the Bomen precinct isclearly a really important part of that,” Dr McGirr said.
“For that to work, this bridge needed to be constructed, it needed to take the sort of loads that will be required to go the intermodal hub. The completion of that project is really an important milestone in making that happen.”