The New Grafton Bridge, located east of the
Grafton Bridge
Grafton Bridge is a road bridge spanning Grafton Gully in Auckland, New Zealand. Built of reinforced concrete in 1910, it connects the Auckland CBD and Karangahape Road with Grafton. It spans about 97.6 metres (320 feet), rises 25.6 metr ...
and initially consisting of two lanes, opened to traffic on 12 December 2019.
History
In 2002, the
NSW Government commissioned a study into an additional crossing over Clarence River, released in early 2003.
In October 2008, federal, state and local government representatives inspected the existing bridge. It was claimed that this bridge was not coping with the increasing volume of traffic. Estimates of replacing the bridge were in the range of A$100 million. In December 2012, the
Roads & Maritime Services (RMS) announced that a preferred option of an additional crossing of the Clarence River had been identified and went on public display for comment. RMS also announced that a final decision was expected during 2013. Construction commenced on the new crossing, known as 'New Grafton Bridge', in November 2016 and the bridge was opened on 12 December 2019 by
Chris Gulaptis
Christopher Gulaptis is an Australian politician who was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. He represented Clarence for The Nationals from the 2011 by-election until his retirement in March 2023.
Background and early caree ...
, the
Member for Clarence.
The New Grafton Bridge consists of two lanes and has been designed to be increased to four lanes when traffic levels require it. The bridge also carries 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 ...
footpath and cycleway.
Summerland Way
Summerland Way is a 199–kilometre state route, designated B91, in New South Wales. It runs generally north from Grafton to the state border with Queensland just west of Mount Lindesay, and continues from there into Queensland as Mount Lindes ...
was also rerouted from the old bridge onto the new bridge.
The New Grafton Bridge has not been named as of 2020 and there is a review by The
Clarence Valley Council and
Transport for NSW
Transport for NSW, sometimes abbreviated to TfNSW, and pronounced as Transport for New South Wales, is an agency of the New South Wales Government established on 1 November 2011, and is the leading transport and roads agency in New South Wales, ...
to enquire to the public to help name the bridge.
See also
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List of bridges in Australia
References
External links
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{{Road infrastructure in regional New South Wales
Grafton, New South Wales
Steel bridges in Australia
Concrete bridges in Australia
Road bridges in New South Wales
Bridges completed in 2019
Girder bridges