Grafton Bridge - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

For the bridge in Grafton, NSW
Grafton, New South Wales
The city of Grafton is the commercial hub of the Clarence River Valley. Established in 1851, Grafton features many historic buildings and tree-lined streets. Located approximately 630 kilometres north of Sydney and 340 km south of Brisbane, Grafton and the Clarence Valley can be reached...

, see "Grafton Bridge, NSW
Grafton Bridge, New South Wales
Grafton Bridge is a bascule bridge which spans the Clarence River in Grafton in New South Wales, Australia. Its upper level supports a two way road for traffic, and its lower level supports a rail bridge, a water main, and two footbridges on either side. The bascule span was operational until 1969...

."

Grafton Bridge is a road bridge spanning Grafton Gully

Grafton Gully

Grafton Gully is a deep and very wide gully cutting northwards through the volcanic hills of the Auckland Volcanic Field in Auckland, New Zealand. It divides the CBD of the city from the suburbs of Grafton and Parnell in the east.Grafton Gully is crossed by Grafton Bridge near its south end...

in Auckland City

Auckland City

Auckland City was the city and local authority covering the Auckland isthmus and most of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf, in the North Island of New Zealand. On 1 November 2010 it was amalgamated into the wider Auckland Region under the authority of the new Auckland Council...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. Built of reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...

in 1910, it connects the Auckland CBD

Auckland CBD

The Auckland CBD is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. Bounded by several major motorways and by the harbour coastline in the north, it is surrounded further out by mostly suburban areas...

with the Grafton

Grafton, New Zealand

Grafton is a suburb of Auckland City, New Zealand. The suburb is named for the Duke of Grafton, a patron of the first Governor of New Zealand, William Hobson, and was once known as 'Grafton Heights', denoting it's history as a well-off suburb in Auckland's earliest decades...

suburb. Grafton Bridge spans about 97.6 metres (320 feet), rises 25.6 metres (84 feet) above the abutments and to a height of around 43 metres (142 feet) over the Grafton Gully

Grafton Gully

.

The bridge is on the NZ Historic Places

New Zealand Historic Places Trust

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust is a non-profit trust that advocates for the protection of ancestral sites and heritage buildings in New Zealand...

listing and the IPENZ

IPENZ

The Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand is a not-for-profit professional body representing the engineering profession in New Zealand...

Engineering Heritage Register. In a 2006 poll amongst 600 alumni of the University of Auckland

University of Auckland

The University of Auckland is a university located in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest university in the country and the highest ranked in the 2011 QS World University Rankings, having been ranked worldwide...

School of Engineering, the bridge placed 3rd on the list of New Zealands engineering achievements, after the Manapouri Power Station

Manapouri Power Station

Manapouri Power Station is an underground hydroelectric power station on the western arm of Lake Manapouri in Fiordland National Park, in the South Island of New Zealand...

and Black Magic
NZL 32
NZL-32 or Black Magic, is an International Americas Cup Class yacht that won the 1995 America's Cup. She beat the American defender Young America in a 5-0 victory off San Diego, California.-History:...

.

Since 2009, the bridge forms a core part of the Central Connector

Central Connector, Auckland

The Central Connector , is a bus rapid transit link between Britomart Transport Centre in the Auckland CBD, New Zealand, and the commercial suburb of Newmarket. It is to improve journey times by about 14 minutes for around to 2,600 buses per week, about 65,000 passengers daily...

public transport route between the Auckland CBD and Newmarket

Newmarket, New Zealand

Newmarket is an Auckland suburb to the south-east of the central business district. With its high building density, especially of retail shops, it is considered New Zealand's premier retailing area, and a rival of local competitor Auckland CBD...

, and is closed to private vehicles during daytime hours.

History

Designed by engineer R. F. Moore, and its construction supervised by the city's engineer, W. E. Bush,
the bridge was built in 1910 and was the third bridge to cross Grafton Gully. The first two bridges (built 1884 & 1905) were pedestrian bridges which ran from the bottom of St Martins Lane to Grafton Road (the current bridge connects Karangahape Road

Karangahape Road

Karangahape Road is one of the main streets in the central business district of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area - and subsequent flight of residents and retail into the suburbs - turned it from one of Auckland's premier shopping streets...

and Grafton Road). These cable-stay bridges were comparatively unstable, and it was said of one that police were stationed on the bridge after rugby matches to ensure rowdy crowds did not cause it to collapse by jumping or stamping on it.

The new bridge was championed by the Mayor Arthur Myers

Arthur Myers

Sir Arthur Mielziner Myers was a New Zealand politician. He was Mayor of Auckland City from 1905 to 1909, Member of the House of Representatives from 1910 to 1921, and a Cabinet Minister...

(who advocated for it to be twice as wide as it was eventually built). Even in its narrower form, it was to cost £31,918, resulting in it being called "Myers' Folly" by many at the time, but was also seen to symbolise a commitment to a 'Greater Auckland' as well as state leadership in technology development.

Built of reinforced concrete

Reinforced concrete

by the Ferro-Concrete Company of Australasia Ltd, it is believed to have been the biggest arch bridge span of that type existing at that time. It utilises large 'false piers' at each end which give the appearance of strength in the classical masonry style, but are actually not required to be anywhere as massive. In order to dispel doubts about the strength of the still relatively untested type of construction, at the opening in April 1910 two steam rollers were driven across it. This lack of trust had also led to a stipulation in the original construction contract that no progress payments should be made, causing the construction company to go into bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

, with the bridge having to be completed by the city. This also added to the final costs, which were around £33,000

Symonds Street Cemetery

Symonds Street Cemetery

Symonds Street Cemetery is a historic cemetery and park in central Auckland, New Zealand. It is in 5.8 hectares of deciduous forest on the western slope of Grafton Gully, by the corner of Symonds Street and Karangahape Road, and is crossed by the Grafton Bridge...

, an historic Auckland cemetery

Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...

with many old and imposing (though often crumbling) gravestones is under and around the bridge on the steep inner-city side bank of the Grafton Gully

Grafton Gully

Overview

The bridge carries one traffic lane in each direction as well as footpaths on either side. The bridge was closed for reinforcement works between late 2008 and October 2009. In October 2009 it was reopened by Mayor John Banks

John Banks (New Zealand)

John Archibald Banks, CNZM QSO is a New Zealand politician. He served as Mayor of Auckland City for two terms, from 2001 to 2004, and from 2007 to 2010...

to become a bus priority route

Bus lane

A bus lane or bus only lane is a lane restricted to buses, and generally used to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion...

on the Central Connector

Central Connector, Auckland

. The footpaths are covered with an aesthetically curved glass screen, which serves to prevent people from falling or jumping off the bridge as well as providing unobtrusive weather cover (the bridge already had suicide prevention barriers from 1992 to 1996 (and extra safety fencing from as early as 1936), but after the removal, suicide rates on the bridge jumped fivefold, leading to a quiet re-installation in 2002). There have been no suicides from the bridge since then as of 2009, and the feature has been called an example of best practice of preventing such acts.

Transit corridor

The bridge in 2007 carried around 13,000 vehicles per day, most of them through traffic. Starting in 2009, Auckland City plans uses Grafton Bridge as a major part of the new Central Connector

Central Connector, Auckland

, to connect downtown Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

and the commercial-centre suburb of Newmarket

Newmarket, New Zealand

with improved bus services. This resulted in the bridge becoming a 7am to 7pm bus lane

Bus lane

A bus lane or bus only lane is a lane restricted to buses, and generally used to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion...

, with normal traffic banned to allow up to 1,500 daily bus trips (and up to 65,000 passengers) to get preference.

For this project, somewhat controversial due to the interruption of the direct car connection to Grafton

Grafton, New Zealand

, the bridge was tested and in 2008–2009, strengthened. The modifications, which for structural reasons closed the bridge to all but cyclist and pedestrian traffic starting October 2008, are to ensure that in the future, the weight limit can be raised from 13 tons to 40 tons, allowing the heavier buses to cross. The works also ensured that the bridge will now be able to withstand a 1000-year

Return period

A return period also known as a recurrence interval is an estimate of the interval of time between events like an earthquake, flood or river discharge flow of a certain intensity or size. It is a statistical measurement denoting the average recurrence interval over an extended period of time, and...

earthquake. The bridge had been found to be in good shape, despite around 2,800 primarily minor faults having been found during the upgrade, and only two pieces of reinforcing steel had to be replaced. Costs were originally expected to be around $7.3 million for new anchors at the bridge's two main piers, carbon fibre wrapping around various steelwork and improvements to foothpaths.

In October 2009, the bridge was reopened ahead of schedule, the works having cost $6.9 million. However, the full intended level of bus services did not immediately use the bridge, as the Central Connector project itself was not fully finished at that stage. Compliance with the bus lane

Bus lane

A bus lane or bus only lane is a lane restricted to buses, and generally used to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion...

regulations was low initially, and after issuing warnings only for an initial period, Auckland City Council

Auckland City Council

Auckland City Council was the local government authority representing Auckland City, New Zealand, and was amalgamated into the Auckland Council on 1 November 2010. It was an elected body representing the 404,658 residents of the city...

eventually began issuing infringement notices, ticketing 831 offenders during the first five days.

External links

New Zealand Historic Places Trust

Grafton Bridge (database entry in the IPENZ Engineering Register)

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