Highway bridge mooted

A BRIDGE could be built over one of Leongatha’s busiest roads should the Great Southern Rail Trail be extended to Korumburra.
South Gippsland Shire Council has engaged a consultant to consider options for the trail crossing of Roughead Street – near the confluence of the South Gippsland, Bass and Strzelecki highways.
A bridge is one of the options in the mix, along with existing footpaths and an underpass.
Leongatha Business Association president Brenton Williams welcomed the prospect of a bridge, believing it could be a regional icon.
“It needs to be given some sort of look, something that the town could benefit from. They could have something on it, like a big cow or a big daffodil; put a bit of artwork on it rather than just a big concrete bridge,” he said.
The bridge could impact the existing rural vista from the Leongatha central business district but mayor Cr Lorraine Brunt said a bridge would most likely be the best option.
“The most favoured or the most doable will be an overhead bridge,” she said.
“Ultimately it’s a significant crossing there. You can’t have people crossing there and you can’t have another set of traffic lights because the traffic would not flow.
“How else are you going to do it? It will really comes down to the safest way to do it.”
Council’s manager infrastructure delivery John Moylan said should a bridge be chosen, the vertical clearance would need to be six metres as Roughead Street is an over-dimensional route.
“In the event that a bridge solution is adopted, the span over Roughead Street would need to be sufficiently long enough to span the existing footpaths,” he said.
“The gradients of an overpass solution would comply with the requirements of the Australian Standard which covers design for access and mobility.”
Asked if council was considering the visual impact such a bridge would have on the Leongatha streetscape, Mr Moylan said, “If the bridge option is adopted, the consultant is required to develop a number of options with an emphasis on the aesthetics of the structure.”
Mr Moylan said the work is part of a broader brief where the consultant is also responsible for developing a preliminary design for the bridge connecting Bair Street into the rail precinct and how these elements link together.
Mr Williams said he understood an initial design would see a bridge over Roughead Street include a branch bridge linking the rail yards with Bair Street.
“It will be great but at the end of the day, they (council) should probably concentrate on getting the rail yards cleaned up. We’ve been waiting for a long time to get that cleaned up,” he said.

Future of Leongatha: an artist’s impression of how a pedestrian bridge over Roughead Street, Leongatha, may look. Digitally altered image.

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Posted by Tayla Kershaw on Oct 2 2018. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry