Bridges

The San Remo Bridge, a 640 m long and 11.2 m wide precast concrete structure, was first opened in 1969. As the sole road connection to Phillip Island across Western Port Bay, this critical piece of infrastructure services the local community, freight, public transport, key tourism facilities and emergency services.

Built to NAASRAs HS20 loading, and operating under aggressive marine environmental conditions which has seen the structure’s condition deteriorating, the structure’s capacity is closely managed to support the modern-day demand placed on the bridge to facilitate the various needs of the island.

Whilst the bridge provides a critical road link, it also supports essential water and sewer services for Phillip Island which are attached to the underside of the structure and managed by Westernport Water. These mains required renewal and rehabilitation of both the pipes and their support brackets attached to the bridge. To address these defects, Westernport Water commissioned repair works which required the use of a suspended scaffolding system to provide safe access.

This paper details how the Department of Transport and Planning managed the limited available capacity of the structure for live loading when faced with the additional dead load imposed by the suspended scaffolding system.