Heavy convoy drives through Murwillumbah early on Friday
20 February 2019
Local traffic will be stopped to let convoy pass through town to Byrrill Creek bridge
A convoy of heavy vehicles will pass through Murwillumbah on Friday morning (22 February), carrying the large pre-stressed concrete beams that will support the deck of the new Byrrill Creek Bridge.
The seven trucks will each carry one deck unit, with each being 22.5 metres long and weighing 20.5 tonne, from the manufacturing plant in Brisbane.
The convoy will park up on Tweed Valley Way between Condong and Quarry Road and be ready to roll at 6.45am. The first truck will be released to test the route and once it has negotiated the town and is safely on Kyogle Road, the next six trucks will be released in convoy.
Once through town, the vehicles will travel on to Kunghur where they will use Mebbin Drive to turn around and then travel eight kilometres back to Byrrill Creek Road. There, they will reverse into the construction site where a crane will lift each deck unit directly into place on the abutments of the new $4.35 million bridge.
It is expected the journey through town will take between 15 and 20 minutes and all trucks will be through before 7.30am.
A pilot vehicle will travel in front of the lead truck and another in front of the convoy to alert approaching motorists of the long loads following.
Local traffic will be stopped from entering the route via Tweed Valley Way, Wollumbin Street, Riverview Street and Kyogle Road while the convoy is passing. Motorists should expect short delays as the lead vehicle and then the convoy travel through town.
Motorists should also expect the vehicles to be on the wrong side of the road at times and to mount both roundabouts and median strips as they make their way through town. Any traffic signs in the way along the route will be removed before Friday and replaced after the trucks have passed.
Once on Kyogle Road, any motorist travelling south behind the convoy should expect a slower than normal journey and probably no opportunities to safely overtake the convoy of big trucks.
Stop / slow flagmen will be in place on Kyogle Road at Mebbin Drive and at Byrrill Creek Road to stop traffic while the trucks back in and turn around at Mebbin Drive and then back into site at Byrrill Creek Road.
Once the first truck is unloaded and has left the Byrrill Creek Road site, the second will back in while a third is released from Mebbin Drive.
“A lot of planning goes on behind the scenes for an operation like this but, all going to plan and weather permitting, we expect all seven deck units to be in place by 11am,” Manager Infrastructure Delivery Tim Mackney said.
“Motorists using Byrrill Creek Road are advised to use an alternate route if possible as there will be numerous delays of up to 20 minutes throughout the operation.”
The second delivery of deck units will occur around mid March.
The Byrrill Creek Bridge build is now the only job left of the original 1500 items in Tweed’s $25 million road flood recovery program following Tropical Cyclone Debbie in March 2017.
The Australian Government’s Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development has provided $2.17 million under its Bridges Renewal Program towards the cost of the new bridge.
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Caption: Byrrill Creek Bridge near Uki was severely damaged during the 2017 flood event.