A noticeable dip in the new $786 million Bridgewater Bridge that last week caught the eyes of passing motorists has prompted an explanation from the project’s director.
Ben Moloney on Tuesday said that the bridge’s misaligned structure was a “relatively minor issue” in the “overall context of a three quarter of a billion dollar bridge project”.
The problematic expansion joint, he said, resulted from temporary works that “didn’t perform as intended”.
“The Bridgewater Bridge is over a kilometre long and because of that length, the design needs to accommodate thermal expansion,” Moloney said.
“On a hot day, the structural elements of our bridge will be slightly longer than on a cold day. So we need movement joints spaced throughout the length of the bridge.”
“And in terms of those expansion joints, we need to do some temporary works as we erect the superstructure above. Those temporary works are then removed at a later time and they then become an expansion joint.”
Moloney said work was underway to fix the dip by the end of the week.
“Bridges of this nature are very complex in their construction,” he added.
“We do anticipate these challenges from time to time.”
He said any loss of time caused by the issue can be “made up” between now and completion mid-next year.
“I think what’s cropped up here is the fact that we’ve got 20,000 people driving past every day and it doesn’t take a particular expert to see things weren’t lining up,” Moloney said.
“But it’s a relatively minor issue because we have a really good contractor that knows how to do these things and is getting on with the job.”
The final pier was put in place overnight, allowing crews to switch their efforts to completing the superstructure part of the job.