Bridges

The $323.7 million Echuca Moama Bridge Project involves construction of a new link road between Warren Street in Echuca and Boundary Road in Moama at Stage 3 of works. As part of the project, a new 2-lane road bridge and shared use path (SUP) bridge is constructed over the Campaspe River and floodplain. The design and construction of SUP bridge comprises of a main 45 m steel truss span and two precast concrete plank back spans. The SUP bridge encountered several major constraints including river flow/flood levels as well as riverbank geometry limiting the bridge pier positions and truss lifting limitations. The project team considered multiple design solutions to address the high flood levels and forces in the superstructure itself and tie down the bridge, whilst retaining the architectural aesthetics requirements. Adjacent to the SUP bridge, the design and construction of the Campaspe Road bridge is a 295 m long bridge comprising of 8 spans with both steel box girders and super-T beam spans. The road bridge was also similarly constrained by afflux requirements from the river, street and SUP clearances under the bridge, as well as no-go zones including cultural heritage and Sandhill zones. Furthermore, the bridge also was required to resist earthquake category BEDC-4 at service performance level. Specific placement and orientation of piers were required to meet the constraints as well as a special restraint system to withstand the earthquake forces without restraining the bridge thermal movements. This paper discusses the design solutions and construction challenges encountered by the project team and how they were addressed during the development of the project.