Bridges

The innovative Viaduct over Muscle Creek and Hunter River with an overall length of 178.4m comprises four spans of 45.7m by 50m by 50m by 29.7m and 1.5m length beyond the bearings at each abutment, to suit a challenging and restrictive site. The superstructure comprises a prestressed concrete U-trough girder constructed by the incrementally launched method with eight segments varying from 9.7m to 25m long. The U-trough girder is 3.76m and 3.6m deep for the taller and shorter webs respectively to create a two percent cross fall in the soffit. The Viaduct is supported on 1.5m diameter piles and the piers comprise twin 1.5m diameter columns. The design of the Viaduct was delivered by Cardno now Stantec. This paper describes the design development of the Viaduct. This includes the determination of the design criteria, design philosophy, the selection of the method of construction, superstructure cross section and structural form for the substructure. It also includes construction monitoring.