Kris Croft: Sod turning marks commencement of major works on new Nowra Bridge

On Friday 19 June the first sod was officially turned on the Nowra Bridge Project. Fulton Hogan and Transport for NSW representatives were joined by NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole MP, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister Kevin Hogan MP, Member for Kiama Gareth Ward MP and Member for South Coast Shelly Hancock MP.

Excitement is building in the local area about the $342 million project, jointly funded by the Australian and NSW Governments. More than fifty thousand vehicles cross the Shoalhaven River every day and the new four lane bridge will ease congestion, improve safety, and cater for future traffic growth along this section of the Princes Highway.

Major work is now underway. An exclusion zone has been established within the Shoalhaven River to enable work to occur within the waterway, and a temporary rock platform is being built from the southern foreshore. The new bridge will require thirty nine steel piles, each sixteen meters in length, driven into the river bed, They will be supported on nine piers over the river to match the existing bridges. The new double-T deck segments will be cast with concrete on the southern foreshore and incrementally launched across the river. There will be nineteen segments in total, each close to twenty metres in length, requiring three hundred and fifty cubic meters of concrete.

The bridge deck will require seven thousand cubic meters of concrete and fifty tonnes of reinforced steel, not including piers and marine work. Approximately thirty percent of the project consists of associated roadworks around, and leading up to, the new bridge. This includes upgrading over 1.7 kilometres of the Princes Highway to provide three lanes in each direction, implementing additional turning lanes at Illaroo Road, and a new roundabout at Fairway Drive to improve safety and connectivity to and from the foreshore. A new road will be built from the Princes Highway connecting to Lyrebird Drive which will relieve congestion of local traffic around the intersection of Bridge Road and Pleasant Way.

Work on the bridge foundation is expected to start in September once the rock platform is complete.

For more information on this project CLICK HERE.