West Gate Bridge
bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne, Australia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The West Gate Bridge is a bridge across the Yarra River, near Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. It is the third longest bridge in Australia.[1] The bridge's length, including the approaches is 2,582.6 m (8,473 ft).[1] Work began on the bridge on 22 April 1968. It was opened on 15 November 1978 at a cost of AU$202 million.[1] It was the scene of Australia's worst industrial accident when part of the bridge collapsed in October 1970. The accident killed 35 men and injured 18 others.[1]
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Details
The bridge is a box girder and cable-stayed bridge. The bridge deck is 58 m (190 ft) above the water level to allow ships to pass underneath.[1] The supporting pylons are 102 m (335 ft) high, and help support a span of 336 m (1,102 ft).[1] The bridge is 37.3 m (122 ft) wide. It carries eight lanes of traffic.[1] About 160,000 vehicles travel over the bridge each day.[2]
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Collapse
Problems were first noticed on the West Gate Bridge in May 1970 when several steel girders did not fit into position by about 4.5 in (114 mm).[3] Engineers proposed putting ten concrete blocks, each weighing about 8 tons, onto the girders to bend them into the correct position. In September 1970 it was noticed that this had caused part of the girder to buckle.[3] On 15 October, the engineers began removing the bolts holding the buckled girders in place. This would allow the steel to unbuckle and new steel could be put up to support the damaged section. At 11:50 am the damaged section collapsed.[4] Workers both on and under the bridge were killed when the 2,000 ton section fell 45 m (148 ft) to the ground. In the end, 35 men were killed and 18 were injured.
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References
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