High Country Rail Trail Bridges

Towong Shire Council engaged 12P Consulting to undertake site investigations, feature and level surveys and the preparation of individual concept plans for eight proposed new bridges on the High Country Rail Trail between Tallangatta and Cudgewa in North East Victoria.

The body of work is to be used to support future grant applications to fund the construction of a number of long-span pedestrian and cyclist bridges along the alignment of the old Wodonga to Cudgewa railway line which is now a popular cycling route. These bridge sites at the eastern end of the railway corridor are the last link in the project to connect Wodonga and Cudgewa.

Each bridge site presented its own challenges as far as access to the existing timber trestle bridge, overhead vegetation and stream flows. A hybrid survey consisting of ground-based GNSS survey techniques and high-precision UAV photogrammetry was used to capture detailed models of each site. Once each site had been captured, a 3D textured mesh was produced within which a 3D model of a suitable bridge structure could be modelled.

Render of the proposed steel truss bridge proposed for the site

Existing timber trestle bridge at “The Needles” site on the High Country Rail Trail

Various concepts were modelled before arriving at the preferred construction type and span for each site - taking into account aesthetics, constructability and cost. Knowing the precise topography of each site made it straight forward to design a concept structure to suit.