Hugh Schuitemaker, Murray Pioneer
A Riverland council continues to make progress on the reconstruction of a major bridge in Renmark, utilising some of the largest construction machinery ever seen inside the region.
Renmark Paringa Council last week completed the installation of five concrete girders for the new Twentyfirst Street Bridge.
Renmark Paringa chief executive officer Tony Siviour said the crane used to undertake the works was the biggest he could remember seeing in the town.
“This is definitely the biggest crane that we’ve ever used,” Mr Siviour said.
“Each girder weighs 45 tonne, and it has to be taken out to the extremities, so that weight is needed to lift the girder in place.
“It’s pretty exciting to see infrastructure of this size being built in our community.”
Mr Siviour said ensuring vulnerabilities to high-flow conditions were addressed had been a priority in the new bridge’s design.
“The community will find this bridge will be considerably different to what they remember pre-2022 flood,” he said.
“The way it’s been designed is to make sure the impediments to flow that the community saw during the 2022-23 flood are addressed.
“Because of the bridge design, we’ve been able to secure considerable external funding.”
Mr Siviour said co-operation with the Department for Environment and Water (DEW) had been integral to the success of numerous flood recovery projects in the community.
“DEW have been really helpful in assisting with our hydrology modelling,” he said.
“They’ve been great across the board in terms of constraints projects… that program has been fantastic for our community.”
Mr Siviour said completion of the new bridge – expected inside the next six months – would mark the end of council’s recovery from the 2022-23 flood event.
“(By) mid-2025 we will have completed all our flood recovery works,” he said.
“We know that’s a long time, and we thank the community for their patience.
“Some of the infrastructure we’ve built is for the long term. It’s for the next 100 years.
“We could have gone back and just put another bridge back, that wouldn’t have anywhere near the flood immunity we now have, and it probably would have been at roughly the same cost to the community, because we’ve been able to secure so much external funding.”
This article appeared in the Murray Pioneer, 22 January 2025.