Timber Truss road bridges - Maintenance - Key build program

Roads and Maritime Services has finalised a strategy for the sustainable conservation of heritage timber truss bridges following stakeholder and community involvement. Roads and Maritime Services Infrastructure Maintenance Program delivers economic benefits to the community through savings in vehicle operating costs through the provision of improved ride quality of pavements. This results in a reduction in fuel and oil consumption, vehicle maintenance, tyre wear and vehicle depreciation. Roads and Maritime Services has a number of key building programs underway.

Background

Roads and Maritime manages 48 of the State's 63 remaining timber truss bridges. Built between about 1860 and 1936, these bridges represent an important part of the heritage of NSW, with 29 currently listed on the State Heritage Register.

Managing these historic assets into the future presents a significant challenge. Issues include load carrying capacity, narrow bridge width, poor access and frequent and very expensive ongoing maintenance needs.

Strategic approach

In balancing future transport needs with heritage conservation, Roads and Maritime has researched and identified those timber truss bridges that require either:

Long-term conservation
Conservation with modifications
Replacement.

Of the 48 bridges under our management, Roads and Maritime is proposing to retain 26 bridges that would reflect the history and diversity of timber truss style bridges. It is proposed 22 timber truss bridges be replaced with a modern bridge.

Roads and Maritime is also proposing to remove 12 bridges from the State Heritage Register and add three. Roads and Maritime made a formal application to the Heritage Council following stakeholder and community consultation in 2011.

Submissions report and conservation strategy

The community was invited to comment on the strategy from 18 July 2011 to 26 August 2011.

Roads and Maritime analysed public submissions and prepared a report which summarises the issues raised, responses to each issue and the revised strategy that reflects its response to those submissions. The submissions report and revised conservation strategy is available on the projects documents page .