| Historical notes: | During the 20-year period between 1873 and 1893 there was a massive programme of public works in New South Wales, particularly in expanding the road and rail networks. During this period and despite strong economic conditions, the respective chief engineers, for roads (William C Bennett) and for railways (John Whitton), adopted economic construction methods and materials, for example by using local materials where possible. Consequently an enormous amount of hardwood timber was used for bridge works; mostly timber beam and timber truss bridges.
However, long span bridges were required for major river crossings, making timber bridge construction unsuitable at many locations. Metal bridge construction was adopted for larger bridges at major river crossings with metal supplied from England. John Whitton adopted the use of wrought iron lattice truss bridges, with twelve such bridges built for the NSW Railways in the late 19th century and 24 wrought iron bridges built for roads.
Many of these bridges (for road and rail) remain extant in NSW, including railway lattice bridges at: Bathurst (Macquarie River, 1876), Wellington (Macquarie River, 1881), Woolbrook (MacDonald River, 1882), Dubbo (Macquarie River, 1884), Cowra (Lachlan River, 1887), Tamworth (Peel River, 1882), Albury (Murray River, 1884), and Narrandera (Murrumbidgee River, 1885).
The Albury Murray River Bridge consists of two 48.463 metre wrought iron lattice girder trusses, a steel opening transom top, and cast iron piers. The cylinders, made by Stockton Forge Co. in the UK weighed 290 tonnes and were delivered between 3 April 1883 and 11 June 1883. The superstructure, made by Westwood Baillie & Co. weighed 594 tonnes and was delivered between 3 April 1883 and 11 June 1883.
The total cost of the bridge was estimated at £32,519.19.0, including:
Cylinders, superstructure: £12,313.0.3
Railway carriage of above: £5,318.19.9
Sinking & fixing of cylinders: £10,005.3.9
Erecting superstructure: £3,775.3.3
Cost of trial borings: £2,11.5.0
Permanent Way materials on bridge: £103.3.7
Engineer’s expenses for supervisor: £793.3.5
Few major modifications have been made to the Albury Bridge with the most significant change probably being the opening of a Standard Gauge track linking Albury to Melbourne on 12 April 1962, with normal passenger services commencing on 16 April 1962.
Two former railway lattice bridges (1885 Georges River bridge at Como and 1886 Parramatta River bridge at Meadowbank) were decommissioned for railway use but remain in use as pedestrian walkways /cycle ways. The 1871 wrought iron rail bridge over the Hunter River at Aberdeen was replaced by another bridge and demolished and the 1881 rail bridge over the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga was demolished in 2006 and replaced by a concrete structure. |
