Swan River Rail and Traffic Bridges

Bonacci Infrastructure delivered the temporary works designs for the construction of bridge pier protection systems for both the traffic and rail bridges crossing the Swan River in Fremantle, Western Australia.

Vessel impact protection to the traffic bridge comprised fenders fitted to the existing bridge piers, as well as fender trusses to transfer impact loads from  the piers to steel piles. Protection to the rail bridge comprised a series of dolphins  which were designed to absorb impacts from stray vessels. Key design features include:

• Strength and stability assessments for the existing self-elevating platform (SEP), which operated with a 170 tonne crawler crane. Assessments included planning and design for crane walk-on operations. A smaller modular vessel was also assessed for crane loading.
•  Vessel anchoring layouts, with the need to avoid obstruction to operating vessel channels.

• Review of the existing timber traffic bridge’s capacity to support crane and vehicle loads.
• Development of construction methodologies to float the fender trusses (up to 26 m in length) into place. Planning and care was required to negotiate existing structures and accommodate particularly high current velocities. Bonacci Infrastructure also designed temporary works systems to raise the trusses out of the water for installation at the required elevation.
• Design of two barge-mounted piling gates (one with hydraulic adjustment) capable of driving piles with various outside diameters and able to
  accommodate large tolerances on barge / SEP positioning.
• Design of precast concrete shells to permit construction of the concrete dolphin pile caps.
• Design of spud pile wells which were retrofitted to an existing modular barge.
• Fender systems to facilitate vessel-on-vessel berthing operations.