Woolcott Street Bridge, Waverton
The original bridge at this site, built in 1893 was a through riveted girder bridge with ballasted track carried on a corrugated steel floor. In 1993 the bridge was no longer serviceable and was replaced with a recycled through girder bridge with a floor composed of cross girders and stringers.
The bridge had been previously used at Dombarton, between Unanderra and Summit Tank on the Unanderra to Moss Vale line as part of a unique crossing loop provided in 1943 during the Second World War to increase line capacity. Because of the difficult terrain the bridge was skewed with the line across it set on a curve, which the deck stingers followed. This crossing loop arrangement was replaced with double-track in 1987, when the bridge became surplus but was stored for re-use rather than scrapped.
The main girders for the bridge were already in existence in 1943 when they were requisitioned for the urgent construction of the Dombarton loop. They had been fabricated in the late 1930s for use as a bridge across the Goulburn River on the then incomplete and subsequently construction-abandoned Sanday Hollow to Maryvale line. Here they would have been part of a deck-girder bridge but at Dombarton they were used as a through-girder bridge.
References:
Phippen, Bill, Proposal to Nominate as Item of Engineering Heritage Interest, February 2024.
Phippen, Bill, Wolcott Street Bridge, February 2024.