Crookwell Bridge replacement – Bridges for the Bush

Project background

Roads and Maritime Services developed a strategy for the sustainable conservation of heritage timber truss bridges in New South Wales. In preparing this strategy, Roads and Maritime worked closely with the NSW Heritage Council to identify timber truss bridges that would require upgrade or replacement, balancing heritage management and freight transport needs. The community was invited to comment on this strategy from 18 July until 26 August 2011.

The original timber truss bridge on Binda Road over the Crookwell River, 10 kilometres north of Crookwell, was identified for replacement under the Strategy. In line with this, Roads and Maritime completed the planning and design stages for a new concrete bridge structure. No submissions were received from the community on the proposal to replace the Crookwell truss bridge when the Strategy was advertised for public comment in 2011.

The replacement of the original bridge is also identified as part of the NSW Government's Bridges for the Bush initiative. The initiative is a commitment from NSW Government to improve road freight productivity by replacing or upgrading Higher Mass Limit deficient bridges over the next five years at 17 key locations in rural and regional NSW.

Bridges for the Bush is an investment in critical infrastructure to remove a number of significant freight bottlenecks on the state road network and to improve the safety and reliability of regional bridge structures.

The original bridge over the Crookwell River is a De Burgh type timber truss road bridge with technical and historic significance because of its construction method and design. Built in 1903, the bridge played a significant role in the expansion and improvement of the NSW road network.

A number of De Burgh truss bridges are identified in the Strategy to be retained as fine examples of this period of timber truss bridge design and construction. These structures include Barham, Cobram, Middle Falbrook and St Albans bridges.

For more information on the timber truss bridges, go to the Timber truss road bridges page.

The project

The original timber truss bridge across Crookwell River is a single span, single lane bridge for both traffic directions. The original bridge was designed for loads much less than those applied by modern vehicles and is inconvenient for modern traffic loadings. Maintenance costs have continued to increase due to the labour intensive work needed to maintain the original bridge. Some parts of the original bridge have been repaired, but the ongoing cost of the repairs would continue to increase significantly into the future.

Benefits

• Provide one travel lane in each direction, two metre shoulders to allow for cyclists, upgraded road approaches and improved safety
• The new bridge also improves the capacity of the NSW freight network as it carries Higher Mass Limit (HML) vehicles.

Key features

The replacement bridge is:

• A three span 39.37 metre long pre-cast concrete plank bridge
• Located approximately 15 metres downstream from the existing bridge
• Designed and built to meet current bridge standards.

Review of Environmental Factors

A Review of Environmental Factors (REF) was prepared for the project and contains specialist studies and investigations including biodiversity, noise and vibration, visual impact, Aboriginal heritage and non Aboriginal heritage. The REF also considers the technical and historical significance of the original bridge. The REF is available to view or download from the project documents page.

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