West Gate Bridge
Across Melbourne Harbour, Australia
The West Gate Bridge was to be eight lanes wide and 2.6km long. It would consist of 67m long concrete approach spans, and five continuous steel "box-girder" spans totalling 848m. The box-girder spans would have trapezoidal sections consisting of three cells, and they would be supported by cables as they stretched out over the Lower Yarra River
The design was carried out by Freeman, Fox and Partners
1970 Construction started; after news of the failure of the Milford Haven Bridge, Freeman, Fox & Partners undertook strengthening works on the West Gate Bridge. However the bridge failed during construction. A Royal Commission was established to find out what had happened and why.
Later Redpath Dorman Long appointed Flint and Neill to develop a re-erection scheme for the bridge. After a major re-design including strengthening and widening, followed by successful construction, the bridge eventually opened in 1978.