Beams lift for new bridge over Malaga Drive

Bridge beams for the new Reid Highway Bridge over Malaga Drive will be installed this weekend, heralding a major milestone in a month in this joint Federal/State funded project.

The Australian Government is contributing $67.2 million to this project.  It is one of nine projects, receiving a total of $499.1 million in Australian Government funding, under the National Partnership on Infrastructure Projects in Western Australia.

Federal Minister for Major Projects Paul Fletcher said eight concrete bridge beams would be lifted into place over the weekend in one of the largest operations of its kind in Perth, forming the major works on the Reid Highway Malaga Drive interchange.

“Once completed the new bridge will provide two lanes in each direction, resulting in immediate safety and efficiency gains, along with greater capacity as traffic increases in the future,” Mr Fletcher said.

“Nearly 75,000 vehicles pass through the Reid Highway, Malaga Drive intersection on a typical weekday and current forecasts show traffic volumes increasing to approximately 110,000 vehicles each day by 2031.

“To provide enough long-term capacity on Reid Highway and to save costs on future expansions, the bridges are being built to cater for three lanes in each direction in the future and a double right-turn facility has been included for heavy westbound-northbound traffic movement.”

Western Australian Minister for Transport Dean Nalder said the bridge beams are larger than the ones installed in early November at the Reid Highway, Mitchell Freeway intersection.

“The beams each weigh 175 tonnes and are 46.8m long. They will be lifted into place this weekend by the same 600 tonne crawler crane that is set up on Malaga Drive,” Mr Nalder said.

“Setting up this crane alone requires 31 semi-trailers to transport the components, and three oversize haulage vehicles.

“This bridge is critically important to the road network in the eastern suburbs as it will eliminate a road black spot at the Malaga Drive intersection.”

Malaga Drive will be closed in both directions near Reid Highway all weekend to allow construction of the new bridge. Malaga Drive closes from 9pm Friday November 27 to 5am Monday November 30.  Reid Highway will be closed near Malaga Drive for west-bound traffic only on Friday November 27 from 11pm to 7am and Saturday November 28 from 10pm to 12 midnight.

Motorists are encouraged to visit the Main Roads website for further details and to help plan their journey.

Media Contacts

For Mr Fletcher:                              Catherine McDonald                                 0447 066 213

For Mr Nalder:                                 Kirsten Stoney                                            08 6552 6400