The Martin Bridge is a
road bridge that carries the Manning River Drive across the
Manning River in
Taree, in the
Mid North Coast region of
New South Wales, Australia. In 2010 the bridge was added to
New South Wales State Heritage Register.
Description
The Martin Bridge is a
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
truss bridge of eleven spans, each long, on concrete supports, with three steel girder approach spans each long. The total bridge length is . Originally it had a
lifting span with two concrete counterbalances. The bridge was opened on 18 May 1940 by the
Premier of New South Wales,
Alexander Mair, and replaced a steam-driven timber
ferry
A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
service, in operation since 1902, located at the end of Pulteney Street (the redundant section of approach road on the southern bank of the Manning River leading to the ferry was renamed Old Punt Road). The construction cost was
A£
The pound (Sign: £, £A for distinction) was the currency of Australia from 1910 until 14 February 1966, when it was replaced by the Australian dollar. As with other £sd currencies, it was subdivided into 20 shillings (denoted by the symbol s ...
97,000.
In an article published in the ''
Newcastle Herald
The ''Newcastle Herald'' (formerly branded as ''The Herald'') is a local tabloid newspaper published daily, Monday to Saturday, in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is the only local newspaper that serves the greater Hunter Region and ...
'' it was reported that the men who built the bridge had to work in air where the pressure was and that the cylinders which formed the legs of the bridge were sunk to a depth of . The article stated that:
The bridge is named in honour of
Lewis Martin, the
Member for Oxley and the
Minister for Works and Local Government at the time of construction. The bridge was the major piece of engineering on a deviation of the
Pacific Highway from the previous crossing of the Manning River upstream at Tinonee. The location of the crossing of the Manning River by the Pacific Highway was changed yet again in December 1997 when the Taree bypass opened and two bridges, namely the Ella Simon Bridge and the Henry "Hawkeye" Edwards Bridge, that crossed the Manning River via Dumaresq Island.
As a result, most of the traffic now carried by the Martin Bridge is local traffic.
See also
*
List of bridges in Australia
*
Manning River railway bridge, Taree
References
External links
Bridge on the NSW Road and Traffic Authority webpage
Road bridges in New South Wales
Taree
1940 establishments in Australia
Bridges completed in 1940
Steel bridges in Australia
Truss bridges in Australia
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