A big milestone is nearing on the Princes Highway East Upgrade.
Construction on the Kilmany rail bridge is approaching completion and will slide into its final location over the coming months.
Major Road Projects Victoria Program Director, Brendan Pauwels, said the bridge is “one of Australia’s most unique road-and-rail engineering feats”.
“A Victorian-first design, the 3000-tonne bridge is being built alongside the rail line before being slid into place over several days,” Mr Pauwels said.
“This bridge will be a defining feature of the Princes Highway East Upgrade and our upcoming bridge slide has been carefully planned to minimise rail and road disruptions.”
The rail-over-road bridge at Kilmany is a “network tied-arch” bridge, comprising a steel arch either side of the railway track, a concrete bridge deck, and a network of high-strength steel “hangers” that cross over each other, tying the steel arches firmly to the deck.
With 16 steel arch segments craned into place and 1000 cubic metres of concrete poured to create the deck, approximately 3000 tonnes of materials have been installed on the bridge – a weight equivalent to nearly 500 elephants.
The final bridge design is expected to weigh 3200 tonnes.
These works on the rail bridge have been built “offline” to allow train services to run as normal while the construction team gets everything prepared to minimise disruptions to both road and rail users.
Once the 95-metre-long bridge has been completed on-site, crews will slide it 27 metres into place to form part of the Gippsland rail line.
This construction method is said to be a rarity in Australia.
From there, work will start to dig underneath the bridge, where the Princes Highway will run under the rail line rather than over it. The bridge slide is set to happen during a rail closure in the next couple of months once the offline bridge construction is complete. Working 24/7 over the course of a week, the construction team will slide the new bridge into place using a slide channel and hydraulic jack on a sledge.
Once in position, new ballast and tracks will be laid and following stringent quality and safety inspections, the first train will cross the new rail bridge.
The new bridge is part of the third and final stage of the Princes Highway East Upgrade and will replace the existing rail underpass that was built in about 1965.
It is estimated that up to 15,000 motorists use this stretch of road between Traralgon and Sale daily.
Works on the Princes Highway East Upgrade are expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
