The Iron Cove Bridge is a heritage-listed

road bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

that carries Victoria Road (A40) across

Iron Cove Iron Cove is a bay on the Parramatta River, in the Inner West (Sydney), inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is approximately due west of Sydney central business district, Sydney's central business district. It i ...

, linking the

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

suburbs of

Drummoyne Drummoyne is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Drummoyne is six kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative center for the local government area of the City of ...

Rozelle Rozelle is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 4 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Inner West Council. Location Rozelle si ...

in the

City of Canada Bay The City of Canada Bay is a local government area in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The city was formed on 1 December 2000, following the merger of Concord and Drummoyne councils. The city covers an area of and as at the ...

local government area of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia.

Current bridges

A decision to replace the original bridge was made in 1939 just prior to the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Design work began in 1942 and construction by Hornibrook McKenzie Clarke Pty Ltd commenced in 1947. The bridge was officially opened by the Hon. J.J. Cahill, MLA, Premier and Colonial Treasurer of NSW on 30 July 1955. Designed by Laurie Challis from the NSW Department of Main Roads, the Iron Cove Bridge is an impressive steel

truss bridge A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

. It consists of four plate girder approach spans and seven steel

Pratt Pratt is an English surname. Notable people with the surname include: A–F * Abner Pratt (1801–1863), American diplomat, jurist, politician, lawyer * Al Pratt (baseball) (1847–1937), American baseball player * Andy Pratt (baseball) (bor ...

truss spans for a total length of . Four lanes of traffic are located within the truss spans and the overall width of the roadway is between kerbs. The roadway consists of a

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

deck slab with an inset for tram tracks in the centre portion. The bridge has aesthetically distinctive piers and abutments which reflect the Inter-War Art Deco style. Furthermore, it was the last steel truss bridge to be constructed in New South Wales in which rivets were used for field connections prior to the introduction of high strength bolts. The bridge was built to carry four lanes of traffic, however a fifth lane was later added to the southwest side of the bridge. This extra lane ran outside of the main bridge supports, forcing traffic to remain in the lane for the length of the bridge. Until the bridge duplication completed in 2011, the default configuration was three westbound and two eastbound lanes, switching to two westbound and three eastbound lanes during the morning

peak Peak or The Peak may refer to: Basic meanings Geology * Mountain peak ** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics * Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion * Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-di ...

Bridge duplication

In April 2009, the

NSW Government The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

approved plans to construct a second bridge over Iron Cove as part of the Inner West Busway along Victoria Road. During the proposal phase there were strong protests against the duplicate bridge being built from local residents as well as both local area councils of the

(Drummoyne side) and

Leichhardt Leichhardt may refer to: * Division of Leichhardt, electoral District for the Australian House of Representatives * Leichhardt Highway, a highway of Queensland, Australia * Leichhardt Way, an Australian road route * Leichhardt, New South Wales, inn ...

(Rozelle side). Local residents within both Drummoyne and Rozelle formed the Victoria Road Community and organised public demonstrations, the last of which on 29 March 2009 attracted over 3000 protest marchers. Opposition to the new bridge was based on independent evaluations concluding that there would be only slight improvements to traffic congestion citybound on Victoria Road during peak hour while local congestion would worsen. Additionally, parkland on both sides of the new bridge would be reduced and independent environmental studies showed the local environment detrimentally impacted by the new bridge construction. Work on the duplicate bridge commenced in July 2009 and the bridge was opened to traffic late on 28 January 2011. The new bridge was constructed on the western side of the 1955 bridge and carries three westbound traffic lanes with one lane designated as a morning peak bus lane. There is also a

grade-separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tran ...

shared

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically. The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...

footpath and

cycleway Cycling infrastructure is all infrastructure cyclists are allowed to use. Bikeways include bike paths, bike lanes, cycle tracks, rail trails and, where permitted, sidewalks. Roads used by motorists are also cycling infrastructure, except w ...

on the western side of the new bridge which connects to both

The Bay Run The Bay Run is a 7-kilometre-long pedestrian and cycling circuit around Iron Cove passing through the suburbs of Rozelle, Lilyfield, Haberfield, Five Dock, Rodd Point. Russell Lea and Drummoyne. in the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wal ...

and Victoria Road. The 1955 bridge now carries three citybound traffic lanes and a 24-hour bus lane. The additional lane of the 1955 bridge outside the bridge supports was closed and is now only used for maintenance reasons.

First bridge

The original bridge was constructed of

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

lattice girders and opened in 1882 after four years of construction. The area was sparsely populated in the 1880s and the opening of the new bridge not only helped accessibility but also provided a new western route to Sydney via Balmain. The old spans were re-used by means of purchase by Gordon Duff. Because of their good resistance to corrosion, all nine of the 1882 bridge's spans are in current use in three bridges on country roads in the area. All that remains in place of the original bridge are the

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

abutment An abutment is the substructure at the ends of a bridge span or dam supporting its superstructure. Single-span bridges have abutments at each end which provide vertical and lateral support for the span, as well as acting as retaining walls ...

s situated on both sides of the cove approximately south of the current bridge. The abutment on the Drummoyne side is listed on the local government heritage list.

References

Attribution

External links

Roads and Traffic Authority, New South Wales

Inner West Busway (RTA)

Local Images at InnerWest ImageBank

Local History Collection, Leichhardt Council

Victoria Road Community Committee Inc
{{Road infrastructure in Sydney Bridges in Sydney Bridges completed in 1882 Bridges completed in 1955 1955 establishments in Australia Rozelle, New South Wales Road bridges in New South Wales Steel bridges in Australia Pratt truss bridges Truss bridges in Australia Box girder bridges Concrete bridges in Australia Bridges completed in 2011 1882 establishments in Australia 1955 disestablishments in Australia 2011 establishments in Australia Art Deco architecture in Australia