This 160km motorway links the city of Melbourne with Geelong to the west and Traralgon to the east. The route is important
for Victoria State as the Princes Highway-Geelong Road is one of the main routes that connects Melbourne‘s western and eastern suburbs. Congestion is a key issue in Melbourne so new road links are helping keeping traffic moving.
The Duncan Road junction is an important route to and from many of Melbourne’s suburbs and the bridge, built 61 years ago, carries around 11,000 vehicles/day. To improve traffic flow and road safety, the authorities in Victoria State opted to carry out upgrade work to the Duncan Road junction.
This project included the construction of new exit ramps and the demolition of the old bridge along with the removal of the debris. The final stage of the improvement work was for the construction of the new bridge with two lanes in both directions. The project also included the addition of two new ramps for traffic to and from Geelong and the construction of cycle and pedestrian paths and safe crossings on Duncan Road.
To minimise traffic disruption, the old bridge had to be demolished in a single weekend. The flyover was closed to traffic on one Saturday evening, and the junction was reopened on Monday morning.
The works were carried out in record time by City Circle Demolition, one of the biggest Australian demolition companies, a client of Indeco since 2016.
Three Indeco hydraulic breakers, one HP 5000 and two HP 7000 units, played important roles in the demolition of the Duncan Road bridge. One of the most challenging aspects was the removal of the safety barriers for the pillars, which were built using high MPA concrete and featuring extra steel reinforcement, allowing them to withstand the impact of a truck of about 70tonnes travelling at 100km/h.
But despite the difficult nature of the work, the breakers performed reliably and productively and allowed the structure to be demolished within the strict timeframe required by the project.
