Members from Engineers Australia have visited the new bridge over the Clarence River at Harwood, which is the longest bridge on the Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway upgrade.
Engineers Australia is the largest and most diverse body of engineers in Australia, representing around 100,000 professionals at every level across all fields of practice.
About thirty Engineers Australia members attended both events and received a detailed presentation from the project team. Representatives from Roads and Maritime and Pacific Complete provided an overview of the upgrade and the new bridge. Representatives from Pacifico including Eduardo Gutierrez (Pacifico Project Director), Enrico Calzavara (Pacifico BIM Manager) and Jaime Granell (Engineering Services Director for Ferrovial Agroman Australia) explained the design, construction and BIM implementation for this exciting project. The event concluded with a site tour of the precast yard, road deck and taking a closer look at the marine work from the Clarence River.
The new bridge will be 1.5 kilometres long with 36 spans and a maximum span length of 43.3 metres. It frames the Harwood Bridge through alignment of the new bridge piers with the existing.
The twin decks are each supported by twin U-girders with a composite transfloor/cast in-situ deck supporting each carriageway. This is supported on a single reinforced concrete headstock sitting on two 2.2 metre diameter circular columns. A typical cross section for the Pacific Highway for a standard 10.5 metre carriageway consist of five super-T girders with a cast in-situ concrete deck. From a technical, cost and construction perspective, Pacifico considers that using U-girders are more efficient than the standard super-T girder solution. The twin U-girder solution has resulted in an acceleration of the construction program and minimised the number of girders required.
Pacifico is working collaboratively with Roads and Maritime Services and Pacific Complete to deliver this part of the Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway upgrade. The upgrade is jointly funded by the Australian and NSW governments.
