“What has been achieved is remarkable” TasRail former CEO Damien White

Australia’s pre-eminent engineering awards, the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate Australia’s outstanding engineering achievements.

pitt&sherry is delighted to share that we won an Australian Engineering Excellence Award, Tasmania for the Kimberley Bridge Reconstruction. TasRail CEO Damien White commented, “What has been achieved is remarkable”.

The timeframe of 36 days for the design and construction of a new bridge abutment and is testament to our collaborative approach. Our specialist knowledge in the fields of hydrology, geotechnical engineering, bridge design and construction engineering were rapidly utilised in a disaster response situation.  Working collaboratively with the constructor VEC and extending to other consultants and contractors including Engineering Edge (now Rare) and Shaw the design and construction team were able to slash the completion time to just 36 days, significantly less than TasRail’s expectation of 4 to 6 months using a more traditional design procurement approach.

Kimberley Rail Bridge spans the Mersey River in Tasmania, as a critical part of TasRail’s rail network. Built in 1884, the heritage bridge was severely damaged during one of Tasmania’s worst flood events in June 2016. The restoration of the failed northern abutment, its adjacent bridge span, and 200m of adjoining rail embankment allowed a return to normal freight services 36 days after the flood event.  This enabled TasRail to resume normal operations and cease the expensive process of carting all their freight by road.   The open and clear collaboration between the designers, contractor and asset owner was key in ensuring that around-the-clock restoration work was expeditiously delivered, despite the challenging weather conditions that persisted during the works.

After the review, pitt&sherry undertook a forensic analysis of the method of failure and concluded extreme floods mobilised debris that exacerbated hydraulic loads, shifted floodplain flow paths and accelerated scour at the bridge that eventually led to its failure.

pitt&sherry possess advanced hydrologic, hydraulic and scour modelling capabilities that inform flood recovery and flood mitigation designs that came to the fore during the Kimberly Rail Bridge project.  Our expertise in this area extends from bridges, hydraulic infrastructure, flood levees, floodplain management, modelling, flood risk assessments, spillways, rail and road design.  For further information please contact one of our specialists across the transport, rail or bridge sectors.