Narrows Bridge | |
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Coordinates | 31°57′48″S115°50′49″E / 31.9633°S 115.8469°E |
Type | State Registered Place |
Designated | 23 April 1999 |
Reference no. | 4795 |
Location | |
The Narrows Bridge is a freeway and railway crossing of the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia.
Made up of two road bridges and a railway bridge constructed at a part of the river known as the Narrows, located between Mill Point and Point Lewis, it connects the Mitchell and Kwinana Freeways, linking the city's northern and southern suburbs. The original road bridge was opened in 1959 and was the largest precast prestressed concrete bridge in the world. Construction of the northern interchange for this bridge necessitated the reclamation of a large amount of land from the river.
The bridge formed part of the Kwinana Freeway which originally ran for only 2.4 miles (3.9 km) to Canning Bridge. Over the following decades, the freeway system was expanded to the north and south, greatly increasing the volume of traffic using the bridge. As a result, in 2001, a second road bridge was opened to the west of the original bridge, and in 2005, the railway bridge was constructed in the gap between the two traffic bridges. Passenger trains first traversed the Narrows in 2007 with the opening of the Mandurah line.
Narrows Bridge Southbound | |
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Coordinates | 31°57′48″S115°50′49″E / 31.9633°S 115.8469°E |
Carries | Kwinana Freeway (southbound road lanes) |
Crosses | Swan River |
Maintained by | Main Roads Western Australia |
Heritage status | WA Heritage Register |
Characteristics | |
Material | Reinforced concrete |
Total length | 396.5 m (1,301 ft) [1] |
Width | 27.4 m (90 ft) [1] |
Longest span | 98 m (322 ft) |
No. of spans | 5 |
Piers in water | 2 |
History | |
Designer | Sir William Holford |
Construction start | 8 June 1957 |
Opened | 13 November 1959 |
The close distance between Mill Point and Point Lewis at the foot of Mount Eliza meant the site was suggested as a suitable location for a bridge as early as 1849. [2] A bridge was proposed for the site in 1899, but its expected cost of £13,000 was deemed too high. [3] Preliminary planning for a bridge at the site finally began in 1947, but was suspended so that a replacement for The Causeway could be built at Heirisson Island, at the city's eastern end. [4] The new Causeway bridges were opened in 1952, and by 1954 traffic using them to enter the city had doubled, renewing calls for a bridge at the Narrows. [4] [5]
Site investigations for the bridge began in August 1954. [4] The bridge was proposed for the Narrows site by the Town Planning Commission under the chairmanship of Harold Boas. [6] The chosen site drew public protest on the basis that the bridge would spoil the view to and from the city. [7] Also, residents of the wealthy Mill Point area were angry that they would have a major highway running beside their houses. [7] The site also necessitated the reclamation of 60 acres (24 ha) of land from Mounts Bay for the bridge approach and interchange. [8] [9] This land reclamation, which started in October 1954, saw the addition of 3.4 million cubic metres (4.5 million cubic yards) of sand, much of which was dredged from Melville Water. [8]
The state started saving for the new bridge in September 1954, [10] and the construction of the bridge was approved by the Hawke state Labor government in November 1954, before the Hepburn-Stephenson metropolitan roads plan had been finalised, such was the urgency of a new traffic link. [2] The construction of the bridge was subsequently endorsed in the 1955 Hepburn–Stephenson plan, [6] which later developed into the Metropolitan Region Scheme.
The river bed at the site of the proposed bridge was not ideal for bridge building, with soft mud extending down as deep as 80 feet (24 m) and sand beds below that going a further 40 feet (12 m) down. [8] Ernie Godfrey, a bridge engineer with the Main Roads Department, travelled overseas to inspect bridges in similar geological locations and to source a designer for the proposed bridge. [4] The design contract for the bridge was won by British engineering firm Maunsell & Co. [4]
Construction on the road system began in 1956, [11] and the contract for construction of the bridge was signed by Commissioner of Main Roads J. Digby Leach on 16 March 1957. [12] The bridge was built by Danish firm Christiani and Nielsen in conjunction with Western Australian engineering firm J. O. Clough & Son. [4] Leif Ott Nilsen oversaw construction on behalf of Christiani and Nielsen. [13] The first timber pile for the temporary staging for the construction was driven at noon on 8 June 1957. [14] The first permanent pile for the bridge was driven home on 18 August 1957. [14] Work on the bridge's precast concrete beams began in September 1957, and the first of these was lifted into place by the 60-foot (18 m) gantry crane in February 1958. The last river pile was driven home in November 1958, and the final concrete beam was lowered into position in June 1959. [14]
During construction on 10 February 1959, John Tonkin, then the Deputy Premier and Minister for Works, announced that the new bridge was to be named the Golden West Bridge. [11] However, Golden West was also the name for a popular soft drink; [15] the proposal encountered scorn from commentators and was quietly dropped. [11]
The bridge cost £1.5 million, as part of a wider road system costing £3.5 million. [16] Construction of the bridge took 2 years and 5 months. [16] It was officially opened by Governor Charles Gairdner on 13 November 1959. [10] He unveiled a plaque on the bridge together with Premier Sir David Brand, Commissioner of Main Roads J. Digby Leach and Works Minister Gerald Wild. [10] Gairdner was also the first person to drive across the new bridge. [10] It was hoped at this stage that the debt raised to pay for the bridge would be repaid by the Government within 12 months. [10]
The bridge formed part of the new Kwinana Freeway, which originally ran 2.4 miles (3.9 km) from the Narrows to Canning Highway. [17] This was described as the "most modern highway" in Western Australia, with a speed limit of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h). [17] The bridge was also the largest precast prestressed concrete bridge in the world at the time of its opening. [18]
The bridge was jointly designed by engineering firm G. Maunsell & Partners and architects William Halford & Partners. [1] The prestressed concrete design was relatively new for Western Australia, where road bridges had traditionally been built from timber frameworks. [4] The bridge is arched along its length, with a vertical curve of up to 4% grade. [12]
The unusually soft soil conditions at the site forced the use of 160 "Gambia piles" for the bridge's foundations, named after the country in which they were first used. [8] The 31-inch (79 cm) diameter piles have steel shells and conical noses. [8] The hollow piles were driven by a drop hammer falling within them, then when they had sufficient resistance to driving, they were filled with reinforced concrete. [8]
The piles support two river piers, two shore piers and two abutments. [12] The bridge's support columns on the piers were designed in a triangular form, larger at the top than at the bottom, each carrying two of the bridge's beams, so as to not completely obstruct the view through the bridge's piers. [12] These columns support the bridge's five spans: a central span of 320 feet (98 m), two flanking spans of 230 feet (70 m) each and two smaller spans of 160 feet (49 m) at each end passing over roadways. [12] The bridge has eight parallel lines of beams. [12] Each line of beams consists of two cantilever spans 370 feet (110 m) long suspended between the shore and river piers, a central suspended span 140 feet (43 m) long between the two river piers, and two 110-foot (34 m) spans suspended over roadways at either end. [12] Suspended between the beams of the bridge were 1 mile (1.6 km) of 30-inch (76 cm) water mains pipes and 0.5 miles (800 m) of 10.5-inch (27 cm) gas and drainage pipes. [17]
Footpaths 8 feet (2.4 m) wide on either side of the bridge were formed by concrete cast in situ and cantilevered out from the adjacent beams. [12] These footpaths were separated from the roadway and the bridge's edge by lightweight aluminium balustrades and safety fences installed by Bristile. [19] The street lights were integrated into the safety fence. [12]
The deck of the bridge was formed by pre-casting individual concrete units on the southern river shore, then hoisting them into place on temporary timber staging in the river. [12] The units were then structurally joined by strands of high-tensile wire and stretched with a hydraulic jack. [12] These pre-stressing strands were anchored in reinforced concrete blocks at the ends of the spans. [12] The new bridge had a traffic capacity of 6,000 cars per hour in each direction, [12] over a total of six traffic lanes. [20]
Strengthening works were carried out on the bridge by Structural Systems Ltd in 1996. [21] Also in 1996, decorative night lighting was installed on each side of the bridge. [22] The bridge was entered on the state's heritage register on 8 January 1999, [23] and was named a national engineering landmark by the Institution of Engineers, Australia, in November 1999. [24]
The opening of the southern regions of Perth to easier CBD access changed the nature of the metropolitan area, prompting dramatic population growth south of the river. [25] This led to increased traffic on the bridge, causing regular traffic jams in peak hour. Over the years, governments suggested various ideas to reduce the traffic using the bridge, including introducing congestion pricing similar to that used in Singapore, charging vehicles to enter the central business district during peak periods. [25] The government also encouraged voluntary car sharing. [25] These efforts were largely unsuccessful, and by the 1990s, the bridge had become the city's worst traffic bottleneck, [25] despite the addition of an extra traffic lane, bringing the total number of lanes to seven: [20]
Peak-hour users of the freeway have become accustomed to driving into a bottle-neck every day. They also know that it takes only a minor bingle on the bridge to turn the freeway into a vast parking lot, inciting road rage symptoms and making thousands of people late for work.
— Journalist Andre Malan, The West Australian, 7 March 1998 [25]
Narrows Bridge Northbound | |
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Coordinates | 31°57′48″S115°50′49″E / 31.9633°S 115.8469°E |
Carries | Kwinana Freeway (northbound road lanes); Northbound railway line |
Crosses | Swan River |
Maintained by | Main Roads Western Australia |
Plans for a second Narrows Bridge were mooted during the 1970s, but did not eventuate. [7] By 1998, the original bridge was carrying 155,000 vehicles per day, with an average of 2,700 cars per lane between 7:30 am and 8:30 am, and was thought to be the busiest section of freeway in Australia. [7] This quantity of traffic far outstripped the expected capacity of the bridge when it opened in 1959. [12] In 1998, The road planners' most favoured solution to the traffic problem was to widen the existing bridge by building a smaller second traffic bridge just west of it and joining their decks to form a contiguous roadway. [25] This would increase the number of traffic lanes from seven to ten. [25] The widening was expected to cost $50 million. [25]
A plan to widen the Narrows Bridge was announced on 13 April 1998 by the Court Liberal State Government. [26] The $70 million plan would involve the addition of four extra traffic lanes, [26] and was part of a $230 million package upgrading and extending the southern end of the Kwinana Freeway. [27] Alannah MacTiernan, then the Opposition transport spokesperson, attacked the plan, saying that the government should instead build a railway to Rockingham. [26]
Instead of widening the existing structure, the Minister for Transport, Eric Charlton, on 15 July 1998 approved the construction of a separate second road bridge alongside the original Narrows Bridge; [28] this solution would cost $15 million less, due to new building techniques, and would be less disruptive to traffic on the existing bridge. [29] The construction of a separate bridge was also deemed necessary because the foundations of any new structure might settle in the soft river bed at a different rate from the existing bridge. [29] Under the plan, there would be six lanes on each bridge, including a bus lane on each. [29] The new bridge would run parallel to the original bridge and be separated from it by a gap of 6 metres (20 ft), [29] and was designed to look largely the same as the original. [30]
Main Roads called for tenders for the bridge widening in July 1998, [31] and on 7 March 1999 it was announced that the building contract had been awarded to Leighton Contractors. [32] The negotiated contract price was reduced to $49 million owing to the construction method proposed by Leighton. [33] The designers were Connell Wagner. [34]
The bridge was constructed by the incremental launching technique, with 28-metre (92 ft) segments pre-cast on both shores and pushed out into place as the construction progressed. [35] [36] The bridge was divided into two strips lengthways, with the eastern half launched separately from the western half, and the two decks were later joined at the bridge's centre line. [37] The first of twelve segments [38] was launched in February 2000. [39]
As it was being launched, the bridge rested on temporary piles; only after the structure was fully launched were these piles removed and the bridge allowed to rest on its permanent supports. [35] The construction required the driving of around 250 steel piles; the first was driven on 10 August 1999. [40]
Construction of the second bridge was interrupted several times by strikes, [41] as well as by an algal bloom in the Swan River. [42] The bridge was finally opened to traffic on 26 February 2001, [43] and officially opened by new Transport Minister Alannah MacTiernan (a strident critic of the project) on 30 May 2001. [44] The bridge had originally been planned to be opened in August 2000, [43] and was expected to carry 80,000 cars per day. [44] The new traffic bridge carried six lanes of traffic, including one bus lane, and the original bridge was modified at this time to carry six traffic lanes, as designed. [20]
Narrows Rail Bridge | |
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Coordinates | 31°57′48″S115°50′49″E / 31.9633°S 115.8469°E |
Carries | Southbound railway line |
Crosses | Swan River |
Characteristics | |
No. of spans | 5 |
Piers in water | 2 |
History | |
Opened | 23 December 2007 |
During the construction of the second road bridge, the construction of the Mandurah line through Perth's southern suburbs to Rockingham and Mandurah became a political issue. [45] The incumbent Liberal state government proposed building a railway from Kenwick to connect to the Kwinana Freeway, running in the centre of the freeway for only part of its journey. [46] The Labor opposition instead wanted to build the railway across the Narrows Bridge and down most of the length of the freeway. [46]
After the Labor party won the 2001 state election, it reversed the previous government's position and started planning for the installation of railway tracks across the Narrows Bridge. The construction of a third bridge was needed due to the lack of previous planning provisions when the second bridge was constructed. [47] Leighton Constructions won the contract to build the freeway stage of the railway line and set about constructing a narrow southbound railway bridge in the 6-metre (20 ft) gap between the existing road bridges. [48] [49] The designers of "Package E" of the Southern Suburbs Railway (which included the Narrows Rail Bridge) were GHD, Coffey Geosciences and Wyche Consulting. [50] The eastern side of the existing northbound (2001) bridge was also strengthened to accommodate the northbound railway track. [48] [49] Construction was due to start in July 2005 and completion was expected by December 2005. [51] The first passengers traversed the Narrows on 23 December 2007 with the opening of the Mandurah line. [52]
The railway bridge deck was made from nine steel girders each weighing up to 99.5 tonnes (219,000 lb) [53] and up to 54 metres (177 ft) long. [54] These girders were built in Kwinana, brought to the site by road and lowered into position with a crane. [49]
The existing bridge, built 40 years ago as a six lane bridge, currently has seven lanes but this will be reduced to six with extra lane width contributing to improved safety and driver comfort.
Works have now commenced on both the Ampolex Wandoo Gravity Structure and the Woodman Point Digesters in Western Australia and the group has recently been awarded a major contract for strengthening works on the Narrows Bridge in Perth.
But the decision in the end was to use the stark neon light strip that was turned on last Australia Day. It looks like a slash across the river. Like it or not, it was preferred by architects because it was the style proposed for the bridge when it was built in the 1950s.
CONNELL WAGNER – SENIOR ENGINEER ( 1999–2000) I was involved with the following projects: 1. Duplication of Narrows Bridge Project, WA
The main bridgeworks for the rail project, including the Mount Henry Bridge, the Narrows Bridge and the Canning bus bridge amongst others, were grouped under one contract called "Package E", which was awarded to Leighton Contractors in January 2004. The Leighton Contractors design team for Package E consisted of Coffey Geosciences, GHD and Wyche Consulting.
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has extra text (help)The Swan River is a major river in the southwest of Western Australia. The river runs through the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia's capital and largest city.
The Kwinana Freeway is a 72-kilometre (45 mi) freeway in and beyond the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking central Perth with Mandurah to the south. It is the central section of State Route 2, which continues north as Mitchell Freeway to Clarkson, and south as Forrest Highway towards Bunbury. A 4-kilometre (2.5 mi) section between Canning and Leach highways is also part of National Route 1. Along its route are interchanges with several major roads, including Roe Highway and Mandjoogoordap Drive. The northern terminus of the Kwinana Freeway is at the Narrows Bridge, which crosses the Swan River, and the southern terminus is at Pinjarra Road, east of Mandurah.
The Mandurah line is a commuter railway and service on the Transperth network in Western Australia that runs from Perth south to the state's second largest city Mandurah. The service is operated by Transperth Train Operations, a division of the Public Transport Authority. The line is 70.1 kilometres (43.6 mi) long and has 12 stations. At its northern end, the line begins as a continuation of the Joondalup line at Perth Underground, and ends as a continuation of the Joondalup line at Elizabeth Quay. The first 1.3 kilometres (0.81 mi) of the line is underground, passing under the Perth central business district. The line surfaces and enters the median of the Kwinana Freeway just north of the Swan River. It continues south down the freeway's median for 30 kilometres (19 mi), before veering south-west towards Rockingham. The final stretch of the line goes south from Rockingham to Mandurah.
The Mitchell Freeway is a 41.5-kilometre-long (25.8 mi) freeway in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, linking central Perth with the city of Joondalup. It is the northern section of State Route 2, which continues south as Kwinana Freeway and Forrest Highway. Along its length are interchanges with several major roads, including the Graham Farmer Freeway and Reid Highway. The southern terminus of the Mitchell Freeway is at the Narrows Bridge, which crosses the Swan River, and the northern terminus is at Romeo Road in Alkimos.
The Causeway is an arterial traffic crossing in Perth, Western Australia, linking the inner-city suburbs of East Perth and Victoria Park. It is carried over the Swan River at the eastern end of Perth Water by two bridges on either side of Heirisson Island. The current Causeway is the third structure to have been built across the river at this point.
New MetroRail was a division of the Public Transport Authority in Western Australia. It was responsible for managing extensions to Perth's railway network. The project doubled Perth's rail network, which is operated by Transperth, and was completed in 2007, after various projects were completed. Costing $1.6 billion, the project was the largest public transport project ever undertaken by the Western Australian government and effectively doubled the size of Perth's railway network. A similar agency Metronet was created in 2017 for future Perth rail extensions.
Roe Highway is a 35-kilometre-long (22 mi) limited-access highway and partial freeway in Perth, Western Australia, linking Kewdale with the city's north-eastern and south-western suburbs. The northern terminus is at Reid Highway and Great Northern Highway in Middle Swan, and the southern terminus is with Murdoch Drive at the Kwinana Freeway interchange in Bibra Lake. Roe Highway, in addition to Reid Highway, form State Route 3, a partial ring road around the outer suburbs of the Perth metropolitan area. Roe Highway also forms part of National Highway 94 from Great Eastern Highway Bypass to Great Eastern Highway, and National Highway 95 from Great Eastern Highway to Great Northern Highway.
Canning Bridge railway station is a railway station on the Transperth network. It is located on the Mandurah line, four kilometres from Perth station inside the median strip of the Kwinana Freeway located adjacent to the suburb of Como.
Canning Highway is an arterial road in Perth, Western Australia, linking the inner Perth suburb of Victoria Park in the north-east, to the port city of Fremantle in the south-west.
Leach Highway is a 23-kilometre (14 mi) east-west arterial highway in the southern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, primarily linking Kewdale and Perth Airport with the city of Fremantle.
Canning Bridge is a traffic bridge which is the most downstream crossing of the Canning River in the city of Perth, Western Australia. The bridge is a part of Canning Highway, and it connects the suburbs of Como and Applecross. The Canning River is approximately 100 metres wide at the crossing, the narrowest point of the river along its downstream stretch. It is located near the Canning Bridge railway station.
The Mount Henry Bridge carries the Kwinana Freeway and Mandurah railway line over the Canning River in Perth, approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of the Perth central business district. At 688 metres (2,257 ft) in length including abutments, it is the longest road bridge in Western Australia. It spans the river between the Mount Henry Peninsula and the suburb of Mount Pleasant.
Transport in Perth, Western Australia, is served by various means, among them an extensive highway/freeway network and a substantial system of commuter rail lines and bus routes. Public transport is managed by the Transperth agency.
Armadale Road is a major road in the south and south east of the Perth Metropolitan Area. It serves three purposes: firstly, providing a main route from Armadale to Fremantle; secondly, connecting Armadale to the Kwinana Freeway; and thirdly, since 2005, connecting it to the Tonkin Highway which ferries traffic to the eastern suburbs, Perth Airport and the Forrestfield and Kewdale industrial areas.
Mounts Bay Road is a major road in Perth, Western Australia, extending southwest from the central business district along the north bank of the Swan River, at the base of Kings Park.
Forrest Highway is a 95-kilometre-long (59 mi) highway in Western Australia's Peel and South West regions, extending Perth's Kwinana Freeway from east of Mandurah down to Bunbury. Old Coast Road was the original Mandurah–Bunbury route, dating back to the 1840s. Part of that road, and the Australind Bypass around Australind and Eaton, were subsumed by Forrest Highway. The highway begins at Kwinana Freeway's southern terminus in Ravenswood, continues around the Peel Inlet to Lake Clifton, and heads south to finish at Bunbury's Eelup Roundabout. There are a number of at-grade intersections with minor roads in the shires of Murray, Waroona, and Harvey including Greenlands Road and Old Bunbury Road, both of which connect to South Western Highway near Pinjarra.
Riverside Drive in Perth, Western Australia, is a road on the northern side of Perth Water. It was built on reclaimed land in the 1930s, and links The Causeway to the Narrows Bridge.
Bunbury Bridge was a single-track, timber railway bridge in East Perth in Western Australia. The bridge crossed the Swan River near Claise Brook and was built for passenger and freight traffic to Bunbury on the South Western Railway.
Aubin Grove railway station is a suburban railway station serving Atwell, Aubin Grove, Hammond Park and Success, which are suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. It is on the Mandurah line, which is part of the Transperth network, and is located immediately north of Russell Road in the median of the Kwinana Freeway. It has two platform faces on a singular island platform, which is linked to either side of the freeway by a pedestrian overpass. Services run every 10 minutes during peak and every 15 minutes between peak. The journey to Perth station is 23.8 kilometres (14.8 mi) and takes 21 minutes. The station has a bus interchange with four bus stands and seven regular bus routes.
The Thornlie line is a temporarily closed suburban railway line and service in Perth, Western Australia, operated by the Public Transport Authority as part of the Transperth system. The Thornlie line is a branch of the Armadale line which opened on 7 August 2005 and runs for 2.9 kilometres (1.8 mi) parallel to the Kwinana freight railway between the Armadale line at Kenwick and Thornlie station. Thornlie line services continued north of Kenwick along the Armadale line to Perth station, stopping at most stations, in contrast to Armadale line services, which skipped most stations along that section. The Thornlie line been suspended since 20 November 2023 due to construction work; it is planned to reopen in mid-2025.