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Dunmore Bridge is a highly significant timber bridge in the evolution of bridges in the state of New South Wales.
This bridge behind us was originally built in 1899 and it's one of only three
surviving examples of an overhead braced Allan truss in service.
It's a fantastic asset.
One that RMS is extremely proud of,
as well as the Woodville community.
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The bridge is on the State Heritage Register
which meant that there was an approvals process to go through in order to rehabilitate it.
It's quite complex, we needed to have approvals, design set of drawings,
statement of heritage impacts
and an independent heritage adviser to act on behalf of the Heritage Council to
ensure that we did the works in accordance with those guidelines.
Look, it's a really clever solution. The bridge behind obviously
identical to the one that preceded it, the original bridge.
Our designers have come up with a clever solution
that hides steel in place of timber in critical locations. And what we have is a bridge that is good for
current day loading
and still retains its heritage significance.
The upgrade to the Dunmore Bridge was both unique and innovative because of the
construction methodology we used.
It's the first time in the state that we elected to lift entire Allan truss spans in and out
using a large crane.
We'd broken away from the previous traditional methodologies
where we would do that in situ or use smaller cranes and longer closures. This
really worked for us. We were able to get some big cranes and lift it in, in one piece.
The main benefit was we were able to control risk through an engineered process.
We were avoiding working at heights and working over the river and with traffic.
We managed to do that by prefabricating the trusses in a shed off-site and then
preassemble them and bring them to site.
Just like a big Meccano set, we could then plonk them into position.
Other benefits included
improved quality. The works were in a controlled environment largely off-site
in a shed and then brought to site.
One of the benefits from the upgrade is that we've managed to retain the heritage
authenticity
but we've made the bridge safer for the traffic and the general public.
We've upgraded traffic barriers, improved rideability,
we've put new stress-laminated decks in the bridge
which really means they're safer.
Look, on all RMS projects, the customer is the centre of everything we do.
It's very important to us to get the feedback from our stakeholders.
This project is no different. We've really appreciated the input from the
Woodville community.
We've had members of the community ringing us, offering information about the original
bridge, its history, some of the history of the land and the people.
They want to know what we're doing. And we had a community day here in August where
over 200 people came to attend and offer that information and just get an
appreciation for what we were doing. That was really good, really important.
RMS have been
overwhelmed with the response from the community in the Woodville area.
We've been inundated with requests to come and view the lifts.
They've been excited about this project as much as we have and they've wanted to come out and
witness those lifts.
It really has been
quite incredible, the degree of interest. We've put on special
viewing areas to allow them to come and
view what was going, first-hand.
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As well as that we set up the internet so that they could sit in the comfort of their own homes and watch
what was going on.
We had a couple of thousand hits during the bridge lifts which was
truly amazing.
We had some strict environmental controls in place. We had to make sure
we looked after the environment from the time we landed here.
That meant minimal disturbance to the footprint.
We put geotextile down to protect the ground and put delineation down from
the existing materials. And then we generally put fill on top of that.
Everything we did here was reversible. And we're just about to commence site remediation where
we will re-turf and will plant trees in order to re-establish the former
conditions.
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Look, I'm really proud of the fact that
we've been on-site for over 14 months and we've had no lost-time injuries
over that time.
It's a really well-run site,
safety has been paramount and we've made sure that
workers are able to go home in the same condition they come to work,
they're safe.
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[music] We've had
really positive feedback since we opened the bridge.
We get emails and calls on a daily basis saying that it looks fantastic and they're
really appreciative that we've kept the original features of the bridge, yet it's
upgraded to traffic.
I am particularly proud of the project as
it's had a number of challenges.
I've been involved in it from development phase through to the construction phase.
It's had plenty of issues, geotechnical challenges, Aboriginal heritage, European heritage,
many different facets to these projects. They're quite complex, but they've been really
gratifying in the end and I'm happy to see it in the state it's in.
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The upgrade of the bridge is something I'm particular proud of.
Had many
discussions with the kids, they're excited that Dad's worked on
an old timber bridge and now it looks as good as the original when it was built.
So it's a fantastic outcome and
I'm really proud of it.
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