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“Australian Rail Track Corporation’s (ARTC) new $16 million rail bridge across the Murrumbidgee river at Wagga Wagga will become operational on schedule at 5 am tomorrow Wednesday 3 January 2007.” David Marchant Chief Executive of ARTC said today
“This is the culmination of a massive construction program with the new 200 metre long rail bridge having been successfully installed and the track relaid over a 4 day “shut down ” period of the Main South line that has allowed the new bridge to be put in place and the old bridge removed.” Mr Marchant said.
The benefits of the new bridge will greatly improve conditions on the Main South line between Sydney to Melbourne with trains now able to cross the bridge at 80 km/hr rather than the previous 20 km /hr speed across the old bridge.
This important piece of new rail infrastructure across the Murrumbidgee river is part of ARTC’s $2 billion North South Rail Investment Program which is directed at reducing transit times while increasing reliability and yield above and below rail.
On completion of ARTC’s 3 year North South Rail Upgrade Investment Program it is estimated that there will be a reduction in transit times between Melbourne and Sydney of two and a half hours from the present 13 hours 10 minutes to 10 hours 40 minutes.
The Wagga rail bridge project was project managed by ARTC and constructed by Arenco Pty Ltd.
2 January 2007
Contact : David Marchant on 0419 733 201
Prue Regan 02 9359 0716 or 0419 297 004