South Road bridge repairs to be done mainly at night
The South Road tram overpass debacle looks to continue as work is done to correct a construction that broke design rules.
Transport and logistics was just one sector that voiced strong concern at the impact of the road’s closure when the problem first became plain.
The South Austrailan government plans that during day works, South Road will remain open in both directions at all times, and access to businesses and properties will be retained at all times.
Any works which require lane closures or through traffic to be held up will occur at night.
Traffic may be held up for up to 15 minutes on up to nine occasions during night works, which will occur between 9pm to 6am later in the coming week.
An Aurecon consulting engineers report has found that an ‘anti-throw’ safety screen on the cycling and pedestrian section caught so much wind that it tilted the whole structure’s girders.
As the blame-game starts, infrastructure minister Stephen Mullighan told Adelaide’s Radio 5AA that “the people who were responsible for first of all designing the bridge and then the other independent certifiers have got some very serious questions to answer about how the design first of all wasn’t compliant with several Australian standards and secondly how another firm could independently sign off and certify the design that didn’t meet these standards”.
The state government has since announced a review of other road infrastructure and that has been confirmed.
The Aurecon report says the path was built under a design and construct contract with the Government in 2009 by McConnell Dowell, and was designed for McConnell Dowell by engineering firm AECOM, and certified by Wallbridge and Gilbert Consulting and Engineers.
The SA government says copies of the report have been provided to the consortium of companies who designed and built the path. They will now have an opportunity to respond, after which the State Government will work through the report’s findings and deal with issues of liability.
Separately, Aurecon has also been tasked with designing a permanent solution for the pedestrian and cycling path, as well as to conduct a comprehensive review of the Government bridge maintenance and inspection regimes.
“I have been reassured from the advice I have received that the problems with this bridge are not expected to be experienced elsewhere as the design on a single concrete ‘Super-T’ structure and the supporting bearing arrangement is a design that has not been used elsewhere on our other bridges,” Mullighan says.
“Nonetheless, I have ordered a full review of all of our 1,500 road and rail bridges to ensure that the public can remain confident in these structures.”