Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge laid bare at Scienceworks

— filed under: News, Weekly Top Stories

Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge is certainly not an icon like Sydney’s Harbour Bridge.

And it is not quite such a vital link with alternative Yarra River crossings nearby.
But after more than 30 years it carries huge volumes of traffic between the CBD and Melbourne’s and Victoria’s west and is “a prominent feature of our city and state,” according to state transport minister Tim Pallas said.
Now it is being expanded from 4 to 5 lanes with 360,000 bolts, 1300t of steel and copious quantities of carbon fibre. Enough of the latter to half cover the MCG the minister said last week.
“There are now 500 workers involved in the project to strengthen and expand the bridge to five lanes in each direction,” Pallas said. But when driving over it, people don’t get to see what those workers are doing.
With that in mind a new exhibit about the more than 30 year old bridge, opened last Saturday at the Scienceworks museum, in the shadow of the bridge on the western bank of the Yarra.
The exhibit has been designed and built by the strengthening team and focused on key themes of safety, access, construction materials and engineering, while being interactive and focused on educating students and children.
As well as delivering five lanes in each direction, the project will add new barriers to improve traffic flow and enhance public safety. “We’re undertaking the most complex infrastructure construction project in the country, with hundreds of people working on and inside the bridge,” Pallas said.
The West Gate Bridge Strengthening Project is part of the $1.39bn Monash-CityLink-West Gate (M1) Upgrade.

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