Construction of a second Hotham River Bridge is underway in the Western Australian Wheatbelt near Crossman, as part of the Albany Highway project.
The new $15.2 million bridge is part of the $25 million Albany Highway – Kelmscott to Williams Pavement Rehabilitation and Hotham River Bridge Replacement project.
The new bridge will be delivered by BMD Constructions. The company is no stranger to structures spanning rivers in the state, having completed the Coolup East Bridge replacement in 2016 and the Treendale Bridge in 2018.
Around 1700 cubic metres of concrete and 600 tonnes of steel will be used to build the new bridge. Approximately 100 jobs will also be created throughout the project which is south-east of Perth.
The new bridge will be constructed approximately 30 metres east of the existing Hotham River Bridge. The existing original timber bridge, built in 1928 and close to its centenary, will be closed once the new bridge is complete.
Rita Saffioti, WA Minister for Transport, Planning, Ports, outlined that the Albany Highway is a key distributor road in the Wheatbelt region, with this one bridge accommodating close to 3000 vehicles each day. She added that road safety was the primary objective.
“We are continuing to delivery major regional road improvements throughout WA, in particular through our Regional Road Safety Program that will upgrade 7000 kilometres of roads,” Saffioti said.
Across the country, in NSW, BMD Constructions has just been awarded the design and construct contract for landside civil and building works for the new Western Sydney (Nancy-Bird Walton) International Airport withSeymour Whyte, known as the Aerowest Joint Venture. The contract was on the back of their award-winning project for the New Parallel Runway at Brisbane Airport.
Image: The original Hotham River Bridge near Crossman, WA. Source: Wikipedia CC Author: Moondyne.
About the author
Desi Corbett
Desi is the Editor of Concrete in Australia and at the helm of our magazine for 8 years. She was behind the Institute's weekly news bulletins from 2016-2021 and is now writing our focused news items. Desi has been an engineering news and features journalist/editor across all disciplines since 2013 - part of a 30-year career writing for a wide range of industries.