Linking Southbank with Level 4 of the Queens’ Wharf Integrated Resort Development, the pedestrian bridge’s 36m span Module 12 was installed above the Riverside Expressway.
This is the first bridge to be constructed across the Brisbane River in 11 years. Its structural design was carried out by members of WSP Brisbane and Melbourne structural teams, with specialist technical inputs from the WSP Finland Bridges team.
The installation this weekend, involved a major lift, comprising a fully welded 1500 deep, 46t steel girder module, 13 precast deck panels (5t each), pouring of the insitu composite deck slab and installation of an 8t Tuned Mass Damper.
The works were undertaken while the Riverside Expressway, which accommodates around 200,000 vehicles per day, was closed for the whole weekend for this operation.
Photo captured by Rob West, during installation, in the early hours of 19/06/21
“Commencing at 3.00am on Saturday 19/06/2021, the main steel module was erected and seated on its permanent bearings, landing within 10mm of its calculated design position,” explains Rob West, Associate Director - Structures, Property & Buildings. “Over the course of the next 48 hours the deck precast panels and reinforcing was installed, with the deck concrete pour being completed 6.00am Sunday morning. It was a Future Ready moment in action.
“Structural surveys were undertaken at key milestones throughout the weekend, with final displacements being within 2mm of the calculated value (178mm deflection occurred to the girder throughout the works, compared to 180mm estimated. For us technical experts, this is a great outcome!)
“This operation was planned for several months, and the builder, Fitzgerald Constructions, undertook the works exceptionally well, and managed to reopen the freeway approximately 12 hours earlier than originally scheduled.”
“Full credit to all who worked on this project to get us to this point.”
The Neville Bonner Bridge boasts a particularly slender design, which created a number of challenges for the team that were solved using a Future Ready methodology. For example, its rounded shape needed involvement from our Finland team for structural verification of the aerodynamically shaped ribbon section. The deck has also been designed to achieve aerodynamic performance.
Rob adds “Such a slender structure is suspectable to footfall vibration, and dynamic performance has been achieved to avoid the footfall vibration (using extensive design modelling and analysis). And, careful consideration was made with the location of the single, central pier in order to minimise flood impacts and impacts on the existing river traffic.
For more information, contact Rob West.