Elliott Lake Bridge

Construction of a three span pedestrian bridge over Elliott Lake for the Shellharbour City Council as part of the Shellharbour City Foreshore Landscape Masterplan to achieve the goal of a continuous cycling and pedestrian route between Windang Bridge and Shellharbour Village.

The bridge consisted of a sub structure of driven precast concrete piles founded on rock, with pile caps and piers as well as abutments with wing walls. The superstructure consisted of an arched cast insitu post tensioned bridge deck with galvanised pedestrian/cyclist handrails and solar lighting.
Work occurred adjacent to a popular swimming and recreation area. It was therefore necessary to ensure that the work areas were fenced off, or where scaffold / falsework was used anti climb mesh was installed to prevent access. During popular times such as over the summer holidays when work was not being undertaken full time security guards were employed to prevent access to the works area.

The bridge was also being constructed in a tidal estuary, and as such the site was subject to tidal flooding. Several elements of the bridge needed to be constructed below the mean sea level. This required the installation of a well point dewatering system to dewater the work areas at low tide. To limit Fernandes exposure to the tidal inundation work shifts were extended to quickly advance the project to being above the water line. Working in the estuary also required a high degree of environmental compliance.