Sydney Gateway is a new, five-kilometre, toll-free connection linking St Peters Interchange to Sydney Airport, the M5 and the Eastern Distributor. Together with our JV partner Seymour Whyte, we started work in 2021 and are due to hand over the completed project next year.
Each of the bridges comes with its own complexities and challenges. But it’s the Twin Arch Bridge over the Alexandra Canal at Tempe (SB51) that has captured most people’s imaginations.
At a length of around 100 metres, it’s one of the longest – if not THE longest – launched network arch truss bridge in the world.
Come June this year, the first (northbound) bridge structure will have been completed on land adjacent to the canal, and then pushed and pulled across the canal using a combination of heavy lifting equipment and hydraulic jacks. It will take about two weeks to get the bridge into its final position.
At the eastern end of Gateway, the ‘big ticket’ structural feature is the 650-metre long, 20-span concrete viaduct – or flyover – that will link Qantas Drive to the domestic airport precinct.
Over the past year, the supporting concrete piers and headstocks – some weighing as much as 200 tonnes – have been springing up like mushrooms. Now the team has started placing the concrete Super T beams on top of the headstocks to create the framework for the road deck.
Apart from dealing with the everyday challenges of working in live traffic, the Gateway team also has to contend with some of the busiest flight paths in the world. This means any significant lifting and craning operations have to be carefully managed and co-ordinated with the airport.
