PROV image via West Gate Tunnel Project

Approaching the Lower Yarra Freeway

We start on the Prices Highway way back in 1969, one mile away from the junction with what was then called the ‘Lower Yarra Freeway’.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

And the view today – the ‘Lower Yarra Freeway’ is now called the West Gate Freeway, the Princes Highway via Footscray is now the secondary route, the two lanes have doubled to four, and the Western Ring Road has been added to the junction.

And the changes can also be seen at the freeway junction itself.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

Dohertys Road over the freeway having been duplicated in 2021, with more lanes underneath to come as part of the West Gate Tunnel Project.

Google Street View

On to Williamstown Road

We now move onto this 1970 view from the West Gate Freeway at Williamstown Road – an ‘End Freeway’ sign attached to the footbridge – the West Gate Bridge having collapsed during construction on 15 October 1970, with the death of 35 workers.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

And the view today with a completed bridge, and changes thanks to the West Gate Tunnel Project – tall concrete noise walls, the Woduyullul Parring footbridge completed in 2020 to replace the previous open air footbridge; and small footprint steel monopole towers that replaced the traditional lattice towers supporting the 220 kV transmission lines.

Google Street View

Onto the bridge

No traffic in this view of the West Gate Bridge before it was officially opened.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

But the main difference today – the suicide barriers hurried erected in 2010 after years of the government refusing to do so.

Google Street View

Check out the view!

And here is the view from the top, looking over to the Melbourne CBD.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

With 40 years of development filling out the skyline.

Google Street View

And down below

Headed through Port Melbourne

We start off at Graham Street interchange in Port Melbourne, with this 1983 view looking west towards the West Gate Bridge.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

And the view today – the trees are taller and the ‘UFO’ lights are gone, and more importantly, Graham Street doesn’t traverse the bridge anymore. Instead the bridge forms the connection between the Bolte Bridge and the West Gate Freeway, with the Graham Street severed in 1997 so that construction of the CityLink project could proceed.

Google Street View

And over South Melbourne

Now we are in 1987, and it is opening day of the first stage of the elevated West Gate Freeway extension through South Melbourne to St Kilda Road.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

While the view today shows the connection through to CityLink completed in 2000, and additional lanes added in 2011 as part of the Monash–CityLink–West Gate Upgrade project.

Google Street View

Footnote: a bonus bridge

And here’s a 1971 photo of workers having a smoko beneath the Grieve Parade overpass.

VicRoads photo, via West Gate Tunnel Project

In 1991 the original bridge was widened as part of the duplication of Grieve Parade – the original two lane span being joined by another four lane bridge to the west side.

Google Street View

But the heavier trucks of today were too much for the original bridge to handle, and so in January 2021 the spans were demolished as part of the West Gate Tunnel project.

Google Street View

The eastern half rebuilt with stronger concrete super-T beams, and the earthen embankments cut back to fit more traffic lanes beneath.

Google Street View

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Some history

The 2.5km long West Gate Bridge consists of two concrete box girder approach viaducts, 871m and 670m long, and an central 848m cable stayed steel box girder span over the Yarra River. The pier height varies, with a maximum height is 48m.

Except for the portion over the river, practically the full length of the bridge is above vacant land and can be accessed from below by means of elevated work platforms.

Ace Tower Hire photo

But for the portion of the bridge over the river, four permanent maintenance platforms were provided beneath the steel spans.

Operated from two runway beams, three of the platforms dated back to the construction of the bridge in the 1970s, with a fourth installed in 1995, these gave access for routine inspections, as well as minor works such as washing and patch painting.

Upgrade time

In 2006 the State Government announced that they would upgrade the West Gate Bridge to carry an additional lane of traffic, taking it to five in each direction.

Scaffolding was setup underneath the bridge to allow the necessary strengthening works to take place.

Including suspended platforms.

And an elevated lunch room!

The most noticeable change being the outriggers added to the steel span to support the load from the additional traffic lane.

But this presented a problem – it would block the passage of the existing maintenance platforms.

Two options were considered – a replacement system of maintenance platforms, or the acquisition of a mobile bridge inspection platform that would be deployed as needed.

The solution – an upside down crane

This weird looking thing is a MBI 200 under-bridge access unit, custom designed by Moog GmbH in Germany specifically for the Westgate Bridge.

Victorian Government photo

The State Government boasting in a September 2012 media release.

Australia’s largest Mobile Bridge Inspection Platform will improve access for maintenance inspections on Victoria’s most iconic bridge, Minister for Roads Terry Mulder said today.

Roads Minister Terry Mulder announces a mobile bridge inspection platform will replace permanent hanging inspection platforms for the West Gate Bridge, providing more efficient and cost effective maintenance.

Mr Mulder said the mobile bridge inspection platform would replace permanent ‘hanging’ inspection platforms for the West Gate Bridge, providing more efficient and cost effective maintenance.

“Mobile bridge inspection platforms are becoming more and more common on large bridges around the world as sustainable and cost effective maintenance tools,” Mr Mulder said.

“I’m very pleased to launch this innovation in Victoria, which will provide a great cost saving, as we do away with expensive and heavy permanent inspection platforms that span nearly one kilometre.

“It also improves access to all areas under the West Gate Bridge with an expanding platform that can extend for 20 metres under the bridge deck.

‘This will make it is easier for maintenance inspectors to see more of the underside of the bridge and because it is mobile, they can manoeuvre it to exactly where they want to be,” Mr Mulder said.

In what can only be described as an ‘upside down crane’, the unit includes a 17 metre boom arm that extends over the bridge barriers and lowers the inspection platform in place.

In order to stabilise such a large operation, the base truck, at 12 metre in length, has six axles when in operation and weighs 37 tonnes.

“The Mobile Bridge Inspection Platform has come to Australia all the way from Germany and is a great example of Victoria delivering innovative solutions to manage key infrastructure well into the future.”

When in operation, the unit will require two lanes to be closed on the West Gate Bridge to complete an inspection. These will be conducted during off peak periods and at night to reduce delays to traffic.

The bridge inspection unit completed initial testing on the yet to open Nagambie Bypass.

Moog GmbH photo

Showing off the capability of the machine.

Moog GmbH photo

And looking like a transformer in the process.

The inaugural use on the West Gate Bridge was scheduled for Saturday 22 September between 6:00am and midday.

Moog GmbH photo

Two lanes of traffic being closed, while the machine was in use.

Moog GmbH photo

But following the successful commissioning of the unit, it is usually deployed in the dark of night, to minimise the amount of disruption to traffic.

Footnote: more details

Some facts and figures

– 12 metres long
– 2.5 metres wide
– 4.4 metres tall
– 37 tonne mass
– 800 kilogram maximum payload
– 20 metre long access platform
– 17 metre long boom arm
– 6 effective axles when in operation

The under-bridge access unit is mounted atop a Scania 8×4 chassis, with two auxiliary axles able to be lowered to provide additional stability to the vehicle while in use, removing the need for outriggers. Movement of the vehicle while deployed is via 200mm diameter hydraulic driven rollers bearing on the top of the one set of tyres, providing accurate creep control.

VicRoads diagram

Along the boom modular aluminium access scaffold are provided to give access to the underside of the bridge. Additional equipment includes a 12Kva generator providing 415 and 240 volts to power tools, LED lighting, air compressor, water tank and pump, and a hydraulically operated telescopic lift.

VicRoads diagram

Footnote: and other bridges

The West Gate Tunnel project recently used an under-bridge access unit to inspect Shepherd Bridge in Footscray.

West Gate Tunnel Project photo

But they used a ABC 150/LST unit built by Barin Italy, supplied by Ace Tower Group.

Further reading

• West Gate Bridge: mobile bridge inspection platform: Polymenakos, D; Silla Sanchez, J; Noonan, J; Austroads Bridge Conference; 2014
• Australia’s largest ‘upside down crane’ to improve maintenance inspections on West Gate Bridge: Victorian Government media release; 2012
• West Gate Bridge Strengthening Project: Australian Construction Achievement Award paper
• Delivery of MBI 200 to Melbourne: Moog GmbH
• West Gate Bridge: Ace Tower Hire

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A land before COVID

Remember peak hour crowds at CBD railway stations? I wrote about it a decade ago, and ended up in The Age.

In the years since much faster ticket readers by Vix have been deployed at busy stations, but for the past 18 months they’ve been barely used – COVID has cratered patronage.

How about the days when the AFL Grand Final was held in Melbourne? Back in 2011 Collingwood and Geelong were playing, with V/Line running extra trains from Geelong to transports Cats fans to the big game.

V/Line retired their fleet of P class locomotives in 2017, selling them to freight operator Southern Shorthaul Railroad in 2019, and thanks to COVID both the 2020 and 2021 AFL Grand Finals were held interstate.

October also used to be when the Royal Melbourne Show was held, with trains to Showgrounds station to transporting the crowds.

The show has been cancelled for two consecutive years thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the site turned over to a COVID-19 testing site and vaccination hub.

Changes on the railways

Ginifer used to be a station located at ground level.

Flowers placed beside the pedestrian crossing, following yet another person being struck and killed by a train.

And I found more flowers beside a second pedestrian crossing closer to St Albans.

After years of lobbying by local residents, in 2015 level crossings grade separated and new stations were built at Ginifer and St Albans, but there was one omission – the pedestrian crossing between them was left behind.

And finally down in the shadows of Docklands, I found freight wagons being shunted ready for another trip down the Frankston line.

The entire freight yard was relocated in 2015 to make way for the E-Gate urban renewal project, but the land has since been co-opted by the West Gate ‘Tunnel’ Project, to be covered by a tangle of freeway ramps.

Build it up

At 199 William Street the long abandoned skyscraper was seeing some activity.

Redeveloped as ‘The William‘ the lower floors are the Wyndham Hotel Melbourne, with apartments above.

Out at Melbourne Airport, work was well underway on a new air traffic control tower.

The 75 metre tall tower was built at a cost of $19 million, and took over from the 1970s facility next door in 2014.

Outside of Geelong, work on the $78 million final stage of the Geelong Ring Road was almost complete, with a 4.6 kilometre extension from Anglesea Road at Waurn Ponds to Pettavel Road.

It opened to motorists in 2013, and was followed in 2016 by the $164 million Princes Highway West duplication 25 kilometres from Waurn Ponds to Winchelsea.

A nice change from endless road projects was a brand new rail freight terminal at Spotswood.

Operated by Sadleirs Logistics, the terminal sees freight trains daily.

Changes were afoot on the railway towards Sunbury – electrification works were underway

The $270 million project extended suburban train services from Watergardens to Diggers Rest and Sunbury stations, allowing the retirement of the dedicated V/Line services to Sunbury from November 2012.

And the first extension of the suburban rail network in decades – 3.5 kilometres from Epping to South Morang.

When I visited the civil works were mostly complete, with ballast being dropped along the freshly laid track.

The extended line opened to passengers in April 2012, and cleared the way for a further extension of the railway – 8 kilometres north to Mernda, completed in August 2018.

And tear it down

Between Lonsdale and Little Bourke Street in the CBD there was a massive hole.

That was once occupied by Myer Melbourne.

The site was being cleared for the Emporium Melbourne shopping centre, completed in 2014, and which sits behind the facades of the former Myer store.

Over at the former RAAF Williams airfield in Laverton, I found a runway that wasn’t in very good shape.

Last used in 1998, the site is now the suburb of Williams Landing.

On Buckley Street in Footscray I found a row of abandoned houses, with windows boarded up.

Compulsorily acquired for the Regional Rail Link project, the remaining sliver of land is now occupied by townhouses.

While beside the West Gate Freeway another abandoned building was being demolished – the former West Gate Bridge toll plaza.

Made redundant in 1985 following removal of tolls on the bridge, VicRoads retained the site as a conference centre before selling it to a developer in 2010. The site is now the Expressway Business Park.

Things that are gone

Remember yellow ‘Bumblebee’ trams?

By 2014 the bee themed decals were looking rather tatty, so the trams were repainted into the standard Public Transport Victoria livery.

How about the mX newspaper?

Handed out free to homeward bound commuters at CBD railway stations, readership declined thanks to the rise of smartphones, with the final edition published on 12 June 2015.

And the food court at Southern Cross?

It was located on the mezzanine floor at the Collins Street end, and overlooked the country platforms.

The food court closed in November 2011 to make way for a redevelopment of the food and retail outlets at the station, with a Woolworths Metro supermarket now occupying the site.

And things that are the same

Marketing stalls blocking the main entrance to Melbourne Central Station? Still there!

Waiting 20 minutes for a train on the Craigieburn line after 6pm? Still there!

‘Smartbuses’ stuck in traffic in the Melbourne CBD? Still there!

And something foreboding?

Outside Melbourne Central Station I found a line of people dressed in Tyvek coveralls.

But they weren’t testing patients at a COVID exposure site – but handing out marketing junk for the 2011 film ‘Contagion’.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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A different skyline

The skyline west end of the Melbourne CBD was much emptier.

Melbourne Star observation wheel still in pieces.

Nothing behind Southern Cross Station.

Or Docklands Stadium.

Worries of flammable cladding yet to come.

The asbestos filled Spencer Street Power Station was gone, with a display suite for the ‘Upper West Side’ development occupying the site.

The $550 million development was completed in 2016, with 2,207 apartments across four towers.

And over at Spotswood, VicTrack had started cleaning up a similarly contaminated railway yard.

The soil contaminated with arsenic, copper, lead and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was entombed beneath a concrete slab, at what is now a rail freight depot for Sadleirs Transport.

The former Royal Dental Hospital had also been turned into a big hole.

The Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre was built on the site, opening in 2016.

But the Royal Women’s Hospital was still there.

It lay empty for another decade, until recently demolished for a $425 million University of Melbourne expansion.

Transport

On 6 June 2010 the ribbon was cut on a brand new railway station – Coolaroo on the Craigieburn line, between Broadmeadows and Roxburgh Park.

With then-Premier John Brumby and Minister for Public Transport Martin Pakula in attendance.

Over at Southern Cross Station the platforms were covered in artificial grass.

As part of Dairy Farmers’ “City to Country” campaign for yoghurt.

2010 saw new trains finally arriving on the Melbourne rail network to address peak time crowding, but there was nowhere to park them at night.

So a $12 million stabling yard at Newport was under construction.

But even bigger money was also being spent on road projects – work was underway on the $371 million West Gate Bridge Strengthening project.

With a web of scaffolding erected beneath the bridge.

The work reinforced the bridge to carry five lanes in each direction, following the narrowing of traffic lanes from 3.5m to 3.1m wide, with a 0.5m shoulder.

And a holiday related footnote

I headed over to South Australia on holiday.

Where I found The Overland passing through Mount Lofty.

Making a trip down to Victor Harbor for the horse tramway.

And the SteamRanger tourist railway.

And going for a ride on their clapped out diesel suburban trains.

But the South Australian Government was busy spruiking their upcoming public transport investments.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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