VPRS 12863 Bridge Construction Project Records, Project Management Group, Infrastructure Division

Full description

This series consists of project files, photographs and drawings created by the Project Management Group of the Infrastructure Division of the Public Transport Corporation (VA 2984) and previous divisions or branches of Victorian Railways (VA 2876), State Transport Authority (VA 1038) and Metropolitan Transit Authority (VA 1044), whose primary function was bridge construction.

Files on bridge construction are also located within the registered and unregistered files of the Structural Engineering Section, Civil Engineering Department (see VPRS 13412 and VPRS 13415).

For projects pertaining to commercial development at stations researchers should consult VPRS 12772 Station Development/Commercial Development Files.

This is an artificial series constructed by Public Record Office Victoria (PROV). It consists of the following consignments:

P1 Consignment
Bridge over Murray River at Abbotsford (PTC Series 227)
This consignment consists of specifications, detail quantities and plans for a contract to build a bridge over the Murray River at Abbotsford during 1923 and 1924.

The contract was promoted by the National and Local Government Works Branch of the Department of Public Works, New South Wales. Victorian Railways (VA 2876) supplied free delivery of all steelwork required in the project. Contracts consisted of:

- The manufacture supply and delivery of metalwork for one steel lift span, four steel truss spans and steel superstructure for approach spans,

- The conveyance to site and erection of metalwork for steel lift spans, steel truss spans and steel superstructure, and the construction of reinforced concrete piers and abutments, embanked approaches, and the decking of lift, truss, and approach spans, and

- The construction of timber beam bridges and embanked approaches on both the New South Wales and Victorian sides of the river.

P2 Consignment
Bridge over Murray River at Mildura (PTC Series 229)
This consignment consists of specifications, detail quantities and plans for a contract to build a bridge over the Murray River at Mildura during 1923 and 1924.

The contract was promoted by the National and Local Government Works Branch of the Department of Public Works, New South Wales. Victorian Railways (VA 2876) supplied free delivery of all steelwork required in the project. Contracts consisted of:

- The manufacture supply and delivery of metalwork for one steel lift span, four steel truss spans and steel superstructure for approach spans,

- The conveyance to site and erection of metalwork for steel lift spans, steel truss spans and steel superstructure, and the construction of reinforced concrete piers and abutments, embanked approaches, and the decking of lift, truss, and approach spans, and

- The construction of timber beam bridges and embanked approaches on both the New South Wales and Victorian sides of the river.

P3 Consignment
Cremorne bridge (PTC Series 228)
This consignment consists of project files created to manage the replacement of the Cremorne Railway Bridge, which crosses the Yarra River between Richmond and South Yarra. Included in the files were reports, expenditure details, a transcript of evidence given before the Public Works Committee 4 November 1943, internal memoranda, newspaper clippings, engineering diagrams, plans and correspondence.

In 1943 a report from the Parliamentary Public Works Committee was presented to the Governor in Council pursuant to the Public Works Committee Act 1938 (No. 4545). The report recommended the construction of two new bridges to:

- Improve the waterway in the River Yarra
- Straighten the roadway known as Alexandra Avenue and
- Provide an adequate roadway on the north bank of the River Yarra.

The costs involved in the reconstruction were allocated to the Victorian Railways, Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works (VA 1007), Victorian Government, Country Roads Board (VA 722), Melbourne City Council (VA 511), Prahran City Council (VA 2491), Richmond City Council (VA 2494) and the State Electricity Commission (VA 1002).

P4 Consignment
Lynch's Bridge Project - Maribyrnong River Floodway (PTC Series 1024)
The Project Management group of the Infrastructure Division of the Public Transport Corporation (PTC) created this consignment to document the Lynch's Bridge Project - Maribyrnong river floodway.

The project involved building twelve box culverts through the railway embankment that carries the Geelong, Ballarat and western suburbs lines, and to stop flooding on Newell's paddock wetlands (a former abattoir, depot and stockyard site) for the building of 1300 new homes.

Another component of the project was the Melbourne Planning Unit's (MPU) proposed construction of a rail bridge to increase the floodway of the Maribyrnong River. The project was declared successfully completed by the Office of Major Projects on 23 October 1995.

The consignment comprised project files that recorded the complete management of the project. Including:
- Construction drawings,
- General correspondence (including financial and legal correspondence),
- Site agreements,
- Minutes of site and MPU meetings,
- Soil investigation reports,
- Specifications, and
- Contract documents.


P5 to P10 Consignments
New Echuca Rail Bridge (PTC series 636)

These consignments consist of site engineering records for the building of a 450m bridge over the Murray River at Echuca. The bridge was built to carry both cars and trains. Files in this consignment included:
- Site minutes,
- Contract work drawings,
- Tender documentation,
- Status, concrete test and Clerk of Works reports,
- Environmental impact statements, erosion history reports, geotechnical investigations,
- Design calculations, and
- Project Management Files created by the V/Line database superintendent and were labelled ' Clayton Utz's copies (the legal firm employed to oversee the legal aspects of the contract).