25-01-2023
Concrete was poured at the new Cooksvale Road Bridge over Peelwood Creek on Thursday 15 December 2022.
That deck pour consisted of 60 cubic metres of concrete, forming a single monolithic slab.
Director of Infrastructure Leon Kruger said that using a single concrete slab was unusual for a bridge.
“The whole bridge is one piece of concrete rather than a number of smaller components,” he said.
“The metal was prefabricated in a factory outside of Newcastle, all steel and pre-welded, which we craned into place then filled with concrete. You can’t put a load on the concrete for 28 days after it’s been poured, but we should be driving over it in less than a month.”
Work will continue mid-January, and in the interim road works will concentrate on lead-ins to the abutments.
The project has included replacing the old timber bridge and removing the temporary bailey bridge that was installed in January 2021 as a stop gap measure.
There are two other remaining timber bridges to replace – Julong Rd and Burra Burra Creek on Blue Hill Road.
Preliminary earth-work has started on both, and both are scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2023.
The project to replace Council’s timber bridges began in 2019. So far twelve have been replaced and these final three will take the total to 15 replaced bridges.
Funding to replace the bridges has consisted of 50% from the Federal Government’s Bridges Renewal Program, 45% from the NSW Government’s Fixing Country Bridges program, and 5% from Upper Lachlan Shire Council.