THE Oallen Ford Road bridge over the Shoalhaven River will soon undergo urgent repairs, following an inspection last week. The work will mean that the bridge will be closed while the work takes place.
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The inspection, which was part of Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s regular bridge inspection program, identified that one of the bridge corbels had been damaged to the point it was only half of its original size. Goulburn Mulwaree Council’s Director Engineering Services Terry Cooper said the damage created a significant risk that the corbel could fail, which would result in the two girders it supported dropping up to 400mm on to the top of the pier.
“A corbel is a section of timber that supports the bridge girders when it cross or terminates at a pier; depending where the corbel is located, it may support one or two girders,” Mr Cooper said.
“We believe the damage is due to a number of factors; primarily that it’s an old timber bridge that has been underwater a number of times due to the Shoalhaven River flooding.
“A risk review indicates that we need to urgently repair the corbel, however since the mode of potential failure is not catastrophic and adequate strength is available from the unaffected girders to allow the bridge to maintain adequate integrity, which means that we will keep the bridge open over this weekend.”
A crew from Palerang Council undertook some temporary repair work on Friday, with urgent repairs programmed to start tomorrow. The nature of the urgent repairs from tomorrow means that the bridge will be closed while they take place.
“We are aiming for a completion date of Wednesday June 6,” Mr Cooper said.
“We are currently working with Palerang to reduce the timeframe or working over weekends in an attempt to ensure the work is completed early and the bridge is open for the June long weekend, when the traffic will be considerably heavier, particularly with the snow season to start on the long weekend.
“Council has informed all the relevant emergency services of this bridge closure, and they will make arrangements for alternative routes should the need arise.”
Signs will be placed at major entry points to the roads leading to the bridge including the following locations:
* Jerrara Rd near Hume Highway
* Windellama Rd near Mountain Ash Rd, Lumley Rd and Oallen Ford Rd
* Oallen Ford Rd near Bungonia, Lumley Rd, Windellama Rd and Sandy Point Rd
* Braidwood Rd near Bungonia Rd, Lumley Rd Council has also contacted the RMS for assistance by their Incident Controllers and to have the closure placed on the RTALive website.
