The Captain Cook Bridge is a

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 ...

that carries

Taren Point Taren Point is a small waterfront suburb, in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 18 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. Surrounded by the ...

and Rocky Point Roads across the

Georges River The Georges River, also known as Tucoerah River, is an intermediate tide-dominated Ria, drowned valley estuary, that is located in Sydney, Australia. The Georges River is located south and south-west from the Sydney central business district, w ...

in southern

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, in the state of

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 ...

, Australia. The precast prestressed

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

girder A girder () is a Beam (structure), beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a sta ...

bridge crosses near the

river mouth A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current, reducing the carryin ...

as it empties into

Botany Bay Botany Bay (Dharawal language, Dharawal: ''Kamay'') is an open oceanic embayment, located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point a ...

; and links the

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

and

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

areas of Sydney. The bridge comprises a dual carriageway with three lanes in each direction of

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

grade-separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights ( grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...

conditions; and

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, by wheelchair or with other mobility aids. Streets and roads often have a designated footpath for pedestrian traffic, called the '' sidewalk'' in North American English, the ''pavement'' in British En ...

and

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike, push-bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, with two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...

traffic, via two grade-separated paths. on the eastern and western sides of the bridge.

Location and features

The Captain Cook Bridge consists of seven spans totalling in length, with a long deck that is wide with six traffic lanes and two shared bicycle and pedestrian paths. Its foundations extend as deep as below water level to its

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

base. The bridge was opened on 29 May 1965 and links Rocky Point Road at Sans Souci in the St George area to Taren Point Road at

in the Sutherland Shire. Loop walkways run under the bridge at both sides and provide access along the foreshore. The bridge was designed by a team of engineers from the Department of Main Roads (DMR) led by Albert Fried. The bridge went out to tender and an alternative design proposed by John holland designed by Brian Barmby was accepted. The DMR's Resident Engineer for the construction was Ray Wedgwood, who was later the Chief Bridge Engineer for the Roads and Traffic Authority. The main contractor was

John Holland Group The John Holland Group is an infrastructure, building, rail and transport business operating in Australia and New Zealand. Headquartered in Melbourne, it is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction. History The company was founded in ...

.8 The bridge is the easternmost of the seven major crossings of Georges River. The others are Tom Uglys Bridge, which opened in 1929,

Alfords Point Bridge Alfords Point Bridge is a twin concrete and steel box girder road bridge that carries Alford Point Road as state route A6 (Sydney), A6 across the lower Georges River between Padstow Heights, New South Wales, Padstow Heights in the City of Cante ...

(1973, duplicated 2008), M5 Milperra bridge (1992),

Milperra Bridge Milperra Bridge is a road bridge that carries Newbridge Road across Georges River, between Canterbury-Bankstown and local government areas, in South Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The bridge is located adjacent to Henry Lawson D ...

(replacement bridge 1966), Liverpool Bridge (replacement bridge 1958), and M5 Casula bridge (1985, widened 1988). The Captain Cook Bridge is the only section of the planned F6 Freeway that has been built in the Sydney metropolitan area, with the other built sections being between and Bulli Tops and further south between and . On the southern approach the two carriageways of the approach road diverge to allow for construction of a future interchange to also carry freeway traffic to and from the bridge. The speed limit on the bridge and the 1 km (0.62 miles) of freeway on the southern approach is . The bridge was designed to have the capacity to carry 30,000 vehicles on a weekday, but in 2015 the bridge was estimated to be carrying 30,600 vehicles per weekday.

History

A ferry service ran between Sans Souci and Taren Point from 1911. From April 1916 a vehicular punt ran between the two points, and continued to do so even after the opening of the Tom Uglys Bridge in 1929. The Captain Cook Bridge is named in honour of

Captain James Cook Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 1768 and 1779. He complet ...

, a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, who landed at nearby

Kurnell Kurnell is a suburb in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is south of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the Sutherland Shire along the east coast. Cronulla ...

on 29 April 1770, during his first voyage of discovery aboard the '' Endeavour''. A big part of commissioning construction of the Captain Cook Bridge in 1962 was that the nearby three-laned Tom Ugly's Bridge was carrying more traffic than any three lanes of the

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 ...

, and the Taren Point punt was at full capacity carrying 1000 cars daily.

Gallery

CaptainCookBridge.png, Captain Cook Bridge, as viewed from Blakehurst Captain Cook Bridge 01.JPG, Captain Cook Bridge, as viewed from Taren Point Road GeorgesRiverbridges1000.png, Captain Cook Bridge in the foreground, and Tom Uglys Bridge behind Captain_Cook_Bridge_from_Taren_Point.jpg, Captain Cook Bridge taken from

end at night

References

External links

* {{Road infrastructure in Sydney Bridges in Sydney Bridges completed in 1965 Concrete bridges in Australia Road bridges in New South Wales Box girder bridges in Australia History of Sydney Botany Bay Georges River St George (Sydney) Sutherland Shire 1965 establishments in Australia

Location and features

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links