Roads and Maritime Services – Brown Street Bridge Upgrade Works

The Brown Street Bridge was constructed in the 1970’s and as a result the handrail did not comply with the current Australian Standards for minimum heights on pedestrian paths on bridges. Routine painting maintenance could not be carried out due to the height restrictions and the traffic volumes of Parramatta Road below as well as the volume on Brown Street.

As a result of these maintenance issues, corrosive damage developed on the bottom rail and anchorage points of the existing handrail. Civilcraft was contracted to install a new prefabricated handrail according to the current Australian Standards and to mitigate any future corrosion on the bottom rail and anchorage points. The total length of the handrail was approximately 40 metres.

The works were staged in 13 phases and carried out at night due to public safety and road closure restrictions during daytime hours. The safety of pedestrians and vehicles was a priority during this project and therefore the Civilcraft team engaged in works during a low activity period.

Summary of works:

• Traffic management for Parramatta Road (East and West bound) and Brown Street.
• Containment of the worksite behind timber hoardings which acted as formwork for the new kerb construction and temporary fencing panels which closed the bridge frequented by pedestrians.
• Removal of existing steel handrails to expose existing concrete edge.
• Hydro demolition of existing concrete edge using high pressure water robotic unit to expose existing reinforcement.
• Construction of new kerb which included shear studs, mesh reinforcement and HD bolts and a B80 32MPa 10mm aggregate low shrinkage concrete.
• Installation of new handrail on kerb with grouting beneath base plates.
• Dismantling of timber panels and temporary fence panels.