Bridging the gap

How can three bridges on a busy rail line be replaced with little to no disruption for passenger, goods and freight services? It’s all about experience.

On a critical rail line in the Hunter Valley, three ageing bridges had reached the end of their design life. Used by more than 56 trains a day, the bridges' maintenance and repairs were causing unplanned closures of the network – with around 18,000 trains a year, that’s a problem.

To improve rail line safety and network reliability, we were required to replace bridges that spanned over a 900-metre section of the rail corridor.

The challenge

The experience of Laing O’Rourke’s Australian Rail Operations were called on to assist the Australian Rail Track Corporation's (ARTC) project team.

The first part of the project involved demolishing a 15-metre, two-span steel bridge, and replacing it with a 26-metre single-span, precast concrete ballast top bridge in the same location as the existing alignment.

Next, we constructed a 600-metre section of new rail, and incrementally launch sections of a new 176-metre multi-span ballast top concrete bridge to replace the other two bridges. This was done on a new alignment to minimise disruption of rail operations.

The outcome

The works were undertaken during major track possessions including one major 96-hour track possession.

This included track reconstruction work, the installation of 900 metres of new rail, and construction of a new precast underbridge.

Throughout the project, effective communication with all stakeholders, including the local community, enabled us to complete the extensive project on time while upholding the highest safety standards.

Throughout the project we upskilled local tradespeople and engineers, ensuring they understood the finer details on how to deliver a major construction project. This is important to us at Laing O’Rourke and is a great outcome for the local community.