Sheahan Bridge is a dual carriageway bridge over the

Murrumbidgee River The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...

on the

Hume Highway The Hume Highway, including the sections now known as the Hume Freeway and the Hume Motorway, is one of Australia's major inter-city national highways, running for between Melbourne in the southwest and Sydney in the northeast. Upgrading of t ...

Gundagai Gundagai is a town in New South Wales, Australia. Although a small town, Gundagai is a popular topic for writers and has become a representative icon of a typical Australian country town. Located along the Murrumbidgee River and Muniong, Honeys ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. It is the third longest bridge in New South Wales after the Macleay Valley Bridge and

Sydney Harbour Bridge The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, spanning Port Jackson, Sydney Harbour from the Sydney central business district, central business district (CBD) to the North Shore (Sydney), North ...

, which at is only slightly longer than the Sheahan Bridge's .

History

The now northbound bridge was built by Transbridge in 1977 to replace the

Prince Alfred Bridge The Prince Alfred Bridge is a wrought iron truss bridge, truss and timber beam partially-disused road bridge over the Murrumbidgee River and its floodplain at Middleton Drive, Gundagai, New South Wales, Gundagai, Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional ...

over the Murrumbidgee River and as part of a deviation of the

built to bypass

. It was constructed using steel-box girder with a single lane of traffic in each direction. It was officially opened to traffic by the

Premier of New South Wales The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster system, Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales actin ...

Neville Wran Neville Kenneth Wran, (11 October 1926 – 20 April 2014) was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman o ...

on 25 March 1977. The bridge was named after local politician Bill Sheahan, who had held the seat of Burrinjuck in the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

. It has three spans over the main river channel and a further 24 south of the river, forming a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

over its flood-plain. At the time of completion, it was the second longest bridge in New South Wales and the longest bridge built by the Department of Main Roads. The bridge was duplicated with a new bridge built immediately to the east of the existing structure by

Fulton Hogan Fulton Hogan is a large infrastructure construction, roadworks and aggregate supplier company in New Zealand, which is also active in wider Australasia. The company was founded by Julius Fulton and Robert Hogan in Dunedin in 1933. In 2013 th ...

in 2008/09. The new bridge was officially opened to traffic by Minister for Infrastructure and Transport,

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been the Leaders of the Australian Labor Party#Leader, leader of the Labor Party si ...

on 25 May 2009. Duplication of the bridge had been planned since 1995. It initially carried traffic in both directions while the 1977 built bridge was refurbished. From December 2009, it carried southbound traffic only. Prior to 2021, Higher Productivity Vehicles had been unable to use the northbound bridge, due to the low design standards. Since March 2021, Higher Productivity Vehicles have been allowed to use the northbound bridge under permit.

References

External links

{{Road infrastructure in regional New South Wales Box girder bridges in Australia Bridges completed in 1977 Bridges completed in 2009 Bridges in New South Wales Gundagai Hume Highway 1977 establishments in Australia

History

See also

References

External links