When an old timber bridge completely failed over Beaury Creek near Urbenville, the Kyogle council came to the rescue, even though the crossing was located in neighbouring Tenterfield shire.
The two council’s show of unity is an example of local government working more closely, in the wake of threatened amalgamation.
Kyogle, with 321 bridges under its municipal control, more than any other government district in the southern hemisphere, was proud to be able to provide one of its in-house designed relocatable bridges.
The million dollar structure is currently spanning Collins Creek, as a temporary crossing, and will be in place in its new location by mid November, the erection itself only taking four days.
Kyogle and Tenterfield shires have relied on bridges since white settlement and the timber and technology that went into them was remarkable. The fact that they stand today is testimony, but Kyogle shire’s director of assets and infrastructure, Tony Lickiss, says timber as a material in modern bridges is no longer desired.
There is one bridge for every 50 Kyogle Council residents compared to an Australia wide average of one for every 800.
Excluding the fact that plywood from New Guinea rainforests was bought for the decking of an incomplete bridge over nearby Wallaby Creek, in the Tenterfield shire, timber is a thing of the past. “Those bridges were designed for a three tonne Bedford with three beasts in the back,” explained Mr Lickiss. “Today We’ve got a truck and dog hitting these things at 100kph.”
Modern bridge materials can cope with this stress and Kyogle is already using products like pultrusion-formed composite beams that withstand rust and termites and weigh less, fitting more on a truck. Wagners near Toowoomba, the brothers who built an airport at Wellcamp in 18 months, lead this technology. But getting back to the rainforest decking … Most residents in the Upper Tooloom know family who used to work in the timber game before Bob Carr’s government dismantled it. They shake their head at the thought of imported timber used on a bridge surrounded by the world’s most structurally correct hardwood.
