Bridges

The requirement for replacement of Frenchman's Creek Bridge was identified as part of the Rockhampton - Emu Park Road - Type 1 Road Train Access to Rockhampton Abattoirs project. A key challenge on the project was the lack of suitable diversion route and inadequate space on the highly constrained site to facilitate a temporary side-track during bridge construction. Therefore, a long-term closure of the bridge for the purpose of bridge replacement was deemed impossible. To overcome this challenge, a proposal was presented to the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) to replace the bridge in a 60-hour road closure period and was approved to be taken forward to detailed design and construction. To facilitate replacement of the bridge in such a short road closure, the new bridge was designed taking into consideration maintaining the operation of the existing bridge during construction as much as possible and adopting innovative solutions to expedite construction process during road closure works. The innovations adopted on the project include introduction and implementation of a one-of-a-kind deck unit design, fast curing grout systems in line with the latest technologies and a bespoke mix design developed to respond to site constraints.