Burnett railway bridge

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Burnett Railway Bridge
North Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia
Official nameBurnett River Railway Bridge
Characteristics
DesignSteel frame truss bridge
Total length534m (Including approach spans)
Longest spanNine spans each of 33.4m
History
Opened15 June 1891; 132 years ago (1891-06-15)
Location
Map

Burnett Railway Bridge is a heritage-listed

Burnett Road Bridge
.

History

The Burnett Railway Bridge is a metal truss rail bridge spanning the Burnett River at Bundaberg, Queensland, and used by the North Coast Railway Line.

A

North Bundaberg to Mount Perry in 1884. That line started from the opposite side of the Burnett River from the main part of Bundaberg in order to speed up construction of the line and save the cost of constructing a bridge. The 534-metre bridge over the river was eventually built to connect the two lines, and opened on 15 June 1891.[1]

The bridge was the first permanent structure to span the Burnett River.

flood damage
compared to the first flood.

On 13 February 1893, there was another flood in the

catchment, which resulted in the third flood of the year. Flood waters subsided on 21 February.[3]

Details

The Burnett River Rail Bridge is located 351.77 km from Brisbane in Bundaberg. It consists of a nine-span truss bridge each of 33.4 m. Together the approach spans and truss spans total at a length of 534 m. It carries a single track and a walkway for maintenance crew.

It was constructed in the 1890s using

steel trusses seen today. There were further upgrades in the 1980s and 90s to replace the timber approach spans
with more modern truss spans. This improved the clearances containers to be transported along the line.

The

speed restriction of 15 kph on the bridge. In August 2009, Queensland Rail commissioned Jacobs SKM to undertake a load rating assessment on three bridges between Bundaberg and Gladstone on the North Coast Line. The Burnett River Bridge was selected as the first to be examined due to corrosion
of the iron piers and its proximity to Bundaberg. The investigation would determine whether it was feasible to repair and maintain the bridge or whether it should be replaced.

A trial was carried out to test bending stresses in the piers and longitudinal stresses in the

crack growth rate.[4] To commence the test, the speed restriction was relaxed to 40kph and a 110 tonne 2250 class locomotive
was used to represent an in-service train load.

The engineers had recommended that the bridge be replaced due to observed corrosion and cracking in the iron piers. The replacement of the bridge was expected to cost an excess of $100AU Million. However following suggested strengthening methods, it was determined that the bridge could achieve a further 30 years of service that would cost about 5% of the total replacement cost.[5]

References

  1. ^ "1890s". www.queenslandrail.com.au. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  2. ^ Deluge: the true story of the Great Brisbane Flood of 1893.
  3. ^ "QUEENSLAND FLOOD SUMMARY 1890 - 1899". Australian Government - Bureau of Meteorology. November 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  4. S2CID 213726638
    .
  5. ^ Woltmann, Tim (2014). "Life Extension of Aging Railway Bridges - A Case Study of the Burnett River Bridge". www.railknowledgebank.com. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
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