Thread: Maitland bridge collapse

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Does anyone remember the Wellington Bridge collapse? Must have been about twenty or more years ago. This was the main bridge across the Macquarie at Wellington on the Mitchell Hwy, and was one of those truss bridges where the traffic goes through the truss, with a series of cross beams above them. A local contractor, carrying a backhoe, crossed the bridge as he had done many times before - but apparently he had new tyres, or higher tyre pressure, or the road had got a bit rough and he bounced - and hit one of the cross beams, dislodging it. Deprived of part of its lateral support, the truss slowly failed and the bridge collapsed into the river a few minutes later.

John

Remember that one - we were only talking about it at work the other day

Martyn

The bridge is definitely more than 5m. 7m is probably not far off -- huge mining equipment goes through there all the time on the back of trucks, there are 3 pedestrian bridges over the space of about a kilometre on this bit of the New England Highway, all seemingly about the same height, he's hit the middle one

Seano

As for the Disco seen in the pictures - some very artful driving involved, he drove it through the pedestrian fencing after the bridge had fallen because he couldn't stop in time. The driver was former Newcastle Jets Chief Executive George Liolio.

Hmm! In about 1961 we had a truck mounted drilling rig on a crew working out of Sale. As the linkage to the PTO was not working, it was usual to drive around with the rig in gear to avoid having to climb under to move it in and out of gear.

One morning as the driller moved off from the hotel they were staying at in Sale, the oil can on the back of the rig fell over against the hydraulic control that raised the mast, so that as he moved off, the mast started to rise. Everyone else on the crew started yelling and waving to him - he waved back and continued on his way; the first obstacle the mast encountered was the power and telephone lines going across the road to the police station...........

I was not there, but I am told that police came boiling out like when you poke an ant nest with a stick! His next half hour or so was rather torrid.

On another note, in 1965 I moved a crew from Brisbane to Alice Springs - we were about a day behing the move of a drilling rig to the same location, and at every town had to prove we were not connected to them (only connection was that we were working for the same client). They had removed every overhead wire from Roma to Alice Springs - without stopping!

John

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Hmm! In about 1961
<snip>
They had removed every overhead wire from Roma to Alice Springs - without stopping!

John

Thanks John, you've lightened my day up immeasurably.