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A historic infrastructure milestone has been reached with the opening of the Brooklyn Sunshine Triangle Bridge Project today in Melbourne.
The $15 million project managed by Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) involved the construction of a brand new 8 span bridge, 220 metres in length adjacent to the Tottenham Rail Yard.
The new bridge will provide a seamless connection between Adelaide/Perth and Sydney/Brisbane, and Western Melbourne to Sydney/Brisbane markets eliminating the need to shunt trains around within Tottenham Yard which can add an hour to transport time, in addition to congesting the network.
ARTC CEO David Marchant said the massive effort that went into constructing the 8 span bridge was not only an impressive engineering accomplishment but a key part of ARTC’s overall strategy to increase the efficiency of the interstate rail network.
“This bridge is a very important piece of infrastructure at the nexus of ARTC’s North South and East West rail networks. By making the connection between the two networks more efficient, we are able to reduce transit times and thereby increase the capacity of the rail,” Mr Marchant said.
“This infrastructure provides a simple process for trains to progress from Western Victoria to Northern Victoria and Sydney and vice-versa without having to enter the inner-Melbourne congested urban area.”
“For ARTC this project is another step forward in rail’s resurgence as a realistic freight option. Rail is cheaper and less fuel intensive door to door on our nation’s major long haul freight routes. As the capacity and reliability of the rail network increases there will be greater incentive to use rail as a realistic freight transport option.”
“Rail will be more than competitive again and as each 1500 metre long train can replace 100 semi trailers we could see less trucks on our major roads,” Mr Marchant said.
The new bridge was constructed through ARTC’s partners in the Southern Improvement Alliance.