Construction of what will become the nation’s longest bridge has commenced in New South Wales’ Mid North coast. The bridge will serve as a bypass for a number of NSW towns and will serve to expand the capacities of the Pacific Highway.

 

Onsite to see the first of the 394 piles to be driven into the ground over coming months to form the bridge’s foundations, NSW Acting Premier Andrew Stoner said the structure will eventually span the Macleay River in the north — a distance of about 300 metres — and the floodplain to the south.

 

“The design also calls for 93 support piers, including eight in the river, spaced 34 metres apart, with the deck of the bridge to be formed using 941 concrete beams — or ‘super–T’ girders — each weighing 65 tonnes,” said Mr Stoner.

 

The bridge is due for completion by mid-2013, tweleve months ahead of schedule, and will allow up to 2,000 trucks to bypass towns such as Kempsey and Frederickton.

 

When complete, the new bridge will better the length of Brisbane's one year-old Ted Smout Memorial Bridge by about half a kilometre.