New bridges offer opportunity to showcase design and geotechnical expertise

Muswellbrook Rail Bridge Replacements

Railways are critical infrastructure for transporting people and goods. Look around your home or workplace, chances are nearly everything you see was on a train at some point. So, it’s vital to replace and upgrade infrastructure, like rail bridges, before they are no longer reliable. The Muswellbrook Rail Bridge Replacements project involves the design and construction of two new rail underbridges along the Ulan Line in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. The new bridges will replace three existing bridges that are nearing the end of their structural design.

With one bridge spanning the New England Highway and the other crossing both Muscle Creek and the Hunter River, the project presents challenges including steep embankments and the need for a temporary access bridge during construction. It’s not surprising then that this requires our multidisciplinary expertise in a range of skills such as, detailed bridge design, geotechnical investigations and design, hydrology and hydraulics investigation, and temporary works design.

With as much as 30 per cent of Hunter Region rail traffic—passenger and freight—relying on the three Muswellbrook bridges, their replacements have a vital role to play in getting goods and people to where they need to be.