The existing Fitzroy River Bridge structure was a single lane bridge built in 1975 and was damaged due to flooding in December 2022 & January 2023. MRWA decided to demolish the damaged bridge and replace it with a new Dual Lane 268m long 8 span bridge.
The new bridge construction was fast tracked due to the interruption to freight and passenger vehicles travelling on the Great Northern Highway if the Fitzroy River flowed. The new bridge was constructed using the Incrementally Launched Method of bridge construction and the superstructure consisted of a composite steel girder with concrete deck bridge with typically 35m spans to Piers constructed using precast concrete external shells with inistu reinforced concrete poured inside. The Piers were founded on concrete filled driven steel tubular piles.
The construction method and design where optimised to minimise the construction time of this important piece of road infrastructure. Piling commenced in Early June 2023 and with the construction of abutments and Piers and a 105m long casting bed on the west side for the prefabrication of the deck steel the first Bridge segment was launched in early September 2023 and the 8th and final deck segment was launched in early October 2023.
