A major milestone has been reached with the opening of the newly constructed bridge over the T8 Airport & South railway line on Heathcote Road at Holsworthy.
The new bridge comes with some very impressive statistics.
It comprises eight steel girders each weighing 65 tons, but combined are as heavy as 11 African elephants.
The reinforcement for the concrete decking alone could have produced 79 Toyota Corollas.
But wait, there’s more: the 10 metre foundations are equivalent to a three storey building.
These are some of the design features of the new structure, which also has a busy rail line underneath it.
It is the first of five bridges to be completed over the coming year which will eventually deliver a two-lane each way dual carriageway on Heathcote Road.
Once the project is finished, the new bridge will provide better access from southern Sydney to Liverpool and other parts of outer South Western Sydney including the Macarthur region, with two traffic lanes and a new path for walkers and bike riders.
The new bridge, 30 metres long and a significant part of the wider upgrade creating around 240 direct jobs along with 480 indirect ones, is a major engineering feat having been built across an active railway corridor.
The new bridge has also seen the construction of eight metre high soil and concrete supporting walls spread over a total distance of more than quarter of a kilometre.
As part of bringing the new infrastructure online, the works has seen the reconfiguring of traffic lanes, installing traffic lights and making other adjustments, including utility relocation, barrier repositioning, line marking and road resurfacing.
The jointly funded project by the NSW and Australian Governments is seeing $188 million invested to upgrade 2.2 kilometres of Heathcote Road between Infantry Parade and The Avenue from the existing single lane road to two lanes in either direction.
The upgrades around Voyager Point and Holsworthy are expected to be completed in 2025.
I wonder if they’ll name the bridge?
I’d like to suggest Ms. Melanie Gibbons after the then State MP who secured the funding for this entire project