Riders won’t have long to wait to try out two massive bridges that will vastly improve life on the bike in Melbourne’s inner west.
Two new spans have been set in place across the West Gate Freeway to provide complete ride-over access at two important locations.
The 70 metre spans are linked to the bike network on both sides by long ramps at rider-friendly gradients and will be safe for the whole family to use.
The bridges and ramps, which also provide pedestrians access for local communities, are at their narrowest a wide 3.0 metres, so there is plenty of space to accommodate all types of users.
On the northern side they connect to the Federation Trail. This will give vastly improved connections to the trail to the large residential communities on the south side without the need to use busy roads.
The bridge at Muir Street will link Yarraville to Spotswood and South Kingsville, creating important links for Wembley Primary, and the sports facilities at McIver Reserve and Donald McLean Reserve.
At Rosala Avenue structure will link Brooklyn to the Altona Gate Shopping precincts and will connect to the Federation Trail at D.N. Duanne Reserve.
The bridges are part of the upgrade to the West Gate Freeway which is being delivered by the West Gate Tunnel project.
The structure are long and massively heavy, and the difficult installation required overnight closures of the freeway.
Both bridges still require some finishing-off works including installation of some cladding on the bridge and along the ramps and concrete pouring of the deck (walking surface) before being opened to the public in the coming weeks.
Watch a video of the installation of the Muir Street structure below.