Comments on: Inspecting the West Gate Bridge https://wongm.com/2023/01/inspecting-the-west-gate-bridge/ Marcus Wong. Gunzel. Engineering geek. History nerd. Mon, 09 Dec 2024 10:35:24 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 By: Marcus Wong https://wongm.com/2023/01/inspecting-the-west-gate-bridge/#comment-859952 Fri, 13 Jan 2023 06:55:22 +0000 https://wongm.com/?p=20697#comment-859952 In reply to Graeme Hammond.

Glad you enjoyed it!

There are some photos showing the walkway inside the steel deck of the West Gate Bridge here:

https://acaa.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/West-Gate-Bridge-Strengthening-Victoria.pdf

]]> By: Graeme Hammond https://wongm.com/2023/01/inspecting-the-west-gate-bridge/#comment-859647 Tue, 10 Jan 2023 10:38:43 +0000 https://wongm.com/?p=20697#comment-859647 Great column! I’ve been inside the West Gate Bridge twice, while working as a journalist for the Sunday Herald Sun. The first time I entered through a door near the top of the bridge, which had access to a ladder down inside the bridge. It was dark, with small portholes sliced through the metal sections inside to allow maintenance workers to hop over from one section to another. It was like being inside the hull of a ship. Years later I was invited back again and went up a lift built against one of the piers. I changed into overalls in a change room suspended beneath the bridge, then walked up some steps that were suspended over the edge of the bridge to access the door. By this time the access portholes between the different sections were all widened into full doorways, so it was possible to walk the full length of the bridge interior, which was by then fully illuminated.

I understand there is still an elevator alongside one of the piers, though from the ground it’s difficult to see how it actually ascends the outside of the pier.

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