Castlereagh Rd Railway Bridge

Castlereagh Rd/Mulgoa Rd is the main north/south "A" road serving Penrith, joining it to places such as Richmond and Windsor to the north, linking it to the east/west M4 south of town and onward to what will be the new Badgery's Creek Western Sydney Airport.

For many years it has struggled on as a four lane road while locals entering/leaving the CBD endured sheer traffic gridlock. One of the factors preventing an expansion to six lanes plus breakdown lanes, dedicated turning lanes etc (and a potential expansion to eight lanes) has been the railway bridge (under which the road runs) which bears the main western railway line, linking Sydney to the rest of the state.

Some months ago a huge bridge was assembled west of Mulgoa Rd, joining nothing to ... er ... nothing. We all wondered why. Then dozens of these huge steel trolleys with literally hundreds of wheels underneath began stacking up nearby.

Using information we can gather from locals, from the diagrams on the website and personal observation, it seems that traffic on the railway line and Castlereagh Rd was shut down for a few days and nights, buses replacing passenger trains, freight trains rescheduled and road vehicles detoured.

Then, under crippling time pressure, in a massive operation (involving heaven only knows how many cranes, trucks and miscellaneous machinery), the old railway bridge was completely taken down and removed, the gap between the embankments gouged out and widened, the entire, fully built, new bridge gradually swung around and wheeled down the slope into position to fill the gap ... and the main western railway tracks replaced.

Beckett found a video on Youtube which is a time lapse depiction of how it was done. Thanks Tom.

Wow. The planning, co-ordination, cost and headaches which must have been involved, don't bear thinking about. You have to hand it to the engineers in charge.