The Bolte Bridge is a large twin

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

road bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Victoria,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The Bolte Bridge carries a total of eight lanes of traffic – four lanes northbound and four lanes southbound. While officially only 490 metres in length, the actual structure appears much longer as it forms part of a 5 kilometre elevated roadway between Flemington Road and the West Gate Freeway. It spans the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower st ...

and

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbor, harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. It acts as both a major trading hub and tourist attraction of Hong Kong in general. Lying in ...

in the Docklands precinct to the west of the

Melbourne CBD The Melbourne central business district (colloquially known as "the City" or "the CBD", and gazetted simply as Melbourne) is the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. As of the 2021 census, the CBD had a population of 54,941, and is ...

. It forms part of the

CityLink CityLink is a network of tollways in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, linking the Tullamarine Freeway, Tullamarine, West Gate Freeway, West Gate and Monash Freeways and incorporating Bolte Bridge, Burnley Tunnel and other ...

system of toll roads that connects the

Tullamarine Freeway The Tullamarine Freeway (commonly referred to as The Tulla), is a major urban freeway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, linking Melbourne Airport to the Melbourne City Centre. It carries up to 210,000 vehicles per day and is one of Australia ...

from the northern suburbs with the

West Gate Freeway The West Gate Freeway is a major freeway in Melbourne, the busiest urban freeway and the busiest road in Australia, carrying upwards of 200,000 vehicles per day. It links Geelong (via the Princes Freeway) and Melbourne's western suburbs to ...

and the Domain and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

tunnels to the

Monash Freeway The Monash Freeway is a major urban freeway in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, linking Melbourne's CBD to its south-eastern suburbs and beyond to the Gippsland region. It carries up to 180,000 vehicles per day and is one of Australi ...

and the south eastern suburbs. It is named after Victoria's 38th and longest-serving

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

, Sir Henry Bolte.

Construction

The bridge was designed by architects Denton Corker Marshall and was built for head contractor

Transurban Transurban is an Australian, multinational road operations company and one of the world's largest toll road operators. Transurban, either independently or through financial consortiums, manage and develops urban toll road networks across Austr ...

by Baulderstone Hornibrook, construction taking three years from 1996 to 1999 and costing $75 million. It was named by

Jeff Kennett Jeffrey Gibb Kennett (born 2 March 1948) is an Australian former politician who served as the 43rd Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999, Leader of the Victorian Liberal Party from 1982 to 1989 and from 1991 to 1999, and the Member for ...

, for former

premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

of Victoria, Sir Henry Bolte because of its linking the West Gate, Monash and Tullamarine Freeways—projects commissioned or completed by the Bolte Government. It is the largest balanced cantilever cast ''in situ'' box girder bridge in Australia. The superstructure is built as two independent bridges of variable depth, prestressed concrete box girders, separated by a 1.15 m clear gap between the structures. The bridge features two 140 metre high silver (grey concrete) towers, situated on either side of the roadway at the midpoint of the bridge's span. These two towers are an aesthetic addition by the architects, and are not joined to the main body of the bridge. These towers are hollow, and feature access ladders to a small roof top hatch. Until they were locked and surrounded by water, these towers were a popular target for urban explorers. It has two main spans of 173 metres, two side spans of 72 metres with approach viaducts 430m to the south 4080 metres to the north. The bridge supports eight lanes of

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

traffic. Access is prohibited to cyclists and pedestrians. Other bridges in Australia of similar construction are the Gateway Bridge, Brisbane and Mooney Mooney Bridge near Gosford, north of Sydney.

Gallery

Image:Aerial panorama of the Docklands facing the Bolte Bridge.jpg, Aerial panorama of Docklands facing the Bolte Bridge Image:BolteBridge.jpg, Bolte Bridge, looking back to the

Image:Boltebridge by night.jpg, The Bolte Bridge at night, with Etihad Stadium, and

in the background Image:Bolte_Bridge_at_Night.jpg, Bolte Bridge taken from Docklands Image:Bolte_Bridge_at_night.JPG, Bolte Bridge from the base of the bridge Image:Bolte-Bridge-At-Dusk.jpg, Bolte Bridge at dusk Boltebridge.jpg, View of the bridge from the bank of the Yarra River File:Docklands View with Bolte Bridge & ANZ Headquarter Building.jpg, Bolte Bridge seen from Docklands,

References

External links

*
Bolte Bridge and innovative design

Denton Corker Marshall Profile
{{Melbourne landmarks Bridges in Melbourne Cantilever bridges in Australia Bridges completed in 1999 Toll roads in Australia Toll bridges in Australia Bridges over the Yarra River 1999 establishments in Australia Road bridges in Victoria (state) Landmarks in Melbourne Buildings and structures in the City of Melbourne (LGA) Transport in the City of Melbourne (LGA)