Westgate Bridge, Australia

AWD designed the award-winning Technitruss access platforms for the strengthening project at the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne, Australia.

We designed a total of 14 suspended access platforms, of varying dimensions, totalling more than 5,500 Sq metres. The platforms were placed at various locations along the full length of the 2.5km bridge, providing a safe means of access and an expansive workspace for the carbon fibre installation works.

AWD also designed special articulated sections to provide ‘V’ shaped platforms which followed the shape of the bridge soffit to give access to the full underside of the bridge.

Our platforms won the Institute of Structural Engineers 2011 Structural Award with judges commenting:

"The West Gate Bridge Suspended Access Platforms represent an example of structural engineering design at its best. A clear understanding of the problem and its constraints, tackled by inventive and imaginative thinking, resulted in a practical, eminently workable solution, the cost of which is an order of magnitude lower than that of more conventional methods. This is a classical case which serves to demonstrate the immense value structural engineers can bring by adopting a well-informed and pragmatic approach to problem solving"