CONSTRUCTION workers have reached the halfway mark on the building of a new $9 million rail bridge over the Macquarie River at Bathurst.
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Australian Rail Track Corporation confirmed the bridge would cost around $9 million when finished, because 102-year-old concrete piers had to be demolished and replaced, and realignments, signals and track had to be added to costs.
New piers were erected in the bed of the river a few months ago to support the u-shape concrete span that has since taken shape extending from the eastern to western side of the river, the ARTC spokesman said.
"The bridge has been half built," the spokesman said. "The October commissioning date for the bridge is still planned."
ARTC is building the bridge for the Rail Infrastructure Commission as part of the country regional railway network, with plans to maintain the 1876 wrought iron heritage bridge that will remain standing alongside the new bridge.
Tenders were called in mid 2009 for the building of the u-shape concrete bridge with superstructure on the mass piers sunk about 1912. But builders found that metal reinforcements in the original piers had rusted out and the piers had to be demolished and replaced.
The demolition and building of new piers delayed progress on the bridge, but work is now moving along at a rapid rate.
After ARTC won approval to build the new bridge it retained Nelmac building company to carry out the construction work. ARTC also had to prepare a maintenance plan for the heritage listed 1876 bridge.
While there have been discussions on the future use of the iron bridge originally built as a temporary bridge in the late 1800s, the ARTC spokesman said yesterday there had been no suitable proposal put forward locally to make future use of the old bridge at this stage.
There have been suggestions Bathurst's riverside gardens, including Peace Park and Lions Evans Bridge facilities could extend beyond Evans Bridge to the heritage railway bridge for it to become a tourist attraction.
Once the new bridge is complete the old bridge will only be visible from close quarters, as the new bridge will obscure vision of the heritage bridge from the north.
