The McEwen Rd bridge has been repaired and reopened.
McEwen Rd has reopened following the refurbishment of a bridge over the Wyuna Main Drain.
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The bridge’s supports had been damaged by heavy rainfall earlier in the year, leading Goulburn-Murray Water to close the section of McEwen Rd between Murray Valley Hwy and McBain Rd.
Inspections revealed the bridge deck would need to be removed for the repairs to take place.
G-MW senior civil engineer Jake Chessells said a unique method was used to achieve this.
“The bridge is made up of 22 pre-stressed concrete beams and removing the bridge deck would normally involve each beam being individually detached and pulled apart,” he said.
“Instead, we devised a method to remove the bridge deck that involved designing and fabricating two large steel beams that we placed under the bridge decks and then lifted them out in two pieces.”
The bridge removal went smoothly, and it was then refurbished before being reinstated and McEwen Road being reopened. Reinstating the bridge again used the two large, fabricated steel beams.
“The approach we took with the fabricated steel beams saved us approximately a week when removing the bridge and another week when reinstating it,” Mr Chessells said.
“Quite a few of the bridges G-MW is responsible for maintaining are similar in their design, so it is certainly a method we will be able to reuse in the future.”
The success of the new method ensured the project was completed on time and under budget.
Repairing the McEwen Rd bridge required some clever thinking.
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