Concrete beams for the bridge component of Perth’s multi-million-dollar Reid Highway-Malaga Drive interchange were installed at the weekend.
Eight concrete bridge beams were lifted into place in one of the larges operations of its kind in Perth, forming the major works on the interchange project.
“Once completed the new bridge will provide two lanes in each direction, resulting in immediate safety and efficiency gains, along with greater capacity as traffic increases in the future,” said Federal Minister for Major Projects Paul Fletcher in a statement.
“Nearly 75,000 vehicles pass through the Reid Highway, Malaga Drive intersection on a typical weekday and current forecasts show traffic volumes increasing to approximately 110,000 vehicles each day by 2031.
“To provide enough long-term capacity on Reid Highway and to save costs on future expansions, the bridges are being built to cater for three lanes in each direction in the future and a double right-turn facility has been included for heavy westbound-northbound traffic movement.”
Western Australian Minister for Transport Dean Nalder also said in the statement that the bridge beams are larger than the ones installed in early November at the Reid Highway-Mitchell Freeway intersection.
The beams each weigh 175 tonnes and are 46.8 metres long. The same 600 tonne crawler crane that is set up on Malaga Drive lifted the beams into place.
“Setting up this crane alone requires 31 semi-trailers to transport the components, and three oversize haulage vehicles,” continued Mr. Nalder.
“This bridge is critically important to the road network in the eastern suburbs as it will eliminate a road black spot at the Malaga Drive intersection.”
The Australian Government is contributing $67.2 million to this project. It is one of nine projects, receiving a total of $499.1 million in Australian Government funding, under the National Partnership on Infrastructure Projects in Western Australia.