West Gate Bridge Research Articles

Structural intervention at one bridge decreases the overall jumping suicide rate in Victoria, Australia.

There is clear evidence that installing safety barriers is effective in preventing jumping suicides from high-risk bridges with only moderate displacement to other nearby bridges. However, the impact of barriers on jumping suicides across broader geographical areas is not well understood. We examined patterns in jumping suicides across the state of Victoria, Australia, after a safety barrier was installed at the West Gate Bridge which, before the installation of the barrier, was the site of approximately 40% of Victoria's jumping suicides. We used negative binomial regression analyses on Victorian data from 2000 to 2019 to compare rates of jumping suicides at the West Gate Bridge, other bridges and non-bridge jumping locations before, during and after the West Gate Bridge barrier installation. We conducted linear regression analyses to examine whether the distance travelled from the deceased's usual residence to the location of their jumping suicide changed between the before, during and after barrier installation periods. After installation of the barrier, there were no jumping suicides at the West Gate Bridge (rate ratio [RR]=0.00, 95% credible intervals [95% Cr]=0.00-0.0001) and there was strong evidence that the rate of jumping suicides at all locations declined by 65% (RR=0.35, 95% Cr=0.22-0.54). At other bridges, there was also evidence of a reduction (RR=0.31, 95% Cr=0.11-0.70), but there was no evidence of a change at non-bridge locations (RR=0.74, 95% Cr=0.39-1.30). After installation of the safety barrier at the West Gate Bridge, jumping suicide in Victoria decreased overall and at other bridges, and did not appear to change at non-bridge locations. Our findings show that when barriers are installed at a site responsible for a disproportionately high number of jumping suicides, they are not only highly effective at the site where the barriers are installed but can also have a prevention impact beyond the immediate locale at similar sites.

Philanthropy and the “Management” of Working-Class Women: The West Gate Bridge Disaster

The West Gate Bridge collapse in 1970 is one of the worst industrial disasters in Australian history. Closely examined for the engineering lessons it provides, scholarly interest in its historical, social, and industrial import is far less extensive. This article examines the role of union leaders, employers, and a private welfare organisation called the Citizens Welfare Service (CWS) in the management of funds raised to support the victims and families of the disaster. More broadly, it reveals philanthropic attitudes and practices adopted to manage working families’ needs in the 1970s that were not altogether dissimilar from those of nineteenth-century philanthropists. Despite the families’ raw grief in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, “home visitors” from the CWS felt entitled to offer heavily gendered and class-based advice to widows about frugal budgeting, domestic order, and composed behaviour. The case management style employed by this welfare agency demonstrated a derivative commitment to capitalist mores that promoted hard work and thrift, while stigmatising welfare dependence.

The Bridge: The Political Possibilities of Intergenerational Verbatim Theater

This article introduces the reader to the work of Australian verbatim theater artists Donna Jackson, Bindi Cole Chocka, and James Henry. It describes the artists’ remount of Vicki Reynolds’s verbatim play The Bridge, which tells the story of the collapse of the Melbourne West Gate Bridge in 1970. I discuss the remount of the play as an intergenerational verbatim theater project which not only tells an important story from Australian working-class history to new audiences who haven’t heard it before, but also deepens the story through additional research and music. I also discuss the play as a project that uses political truths from the past to do new political work in the present.

Writing working class ghosts

On 15 October 1970, in one of the worst industrial accidents in Victoria’s history, a span of the West Gate Bridge collapsed during construction. Thirty-five workers were killed. Very little has been written about the West Gate Bridge collapse, the men who died, the men who survived or the families that were left behind. The Bridge has become a road, too often clogged with traffic, a nuisance, an annoyance. It’s a tragic history, one that the city seems to have forgotten, but more than forty years later, it haunts my imagination and demands to be written. This is a self-reflexive article that explores the process of writing the West Gate Bridge collapse into a work of fiction. It focuses on the challenges of capturing the voices of the working class who are often marginalised and occasionally mythologised (as working class heroes) but rarely the central focus of literature, and the ethical risks associated with aestheticizing a traumatic historical event. Like Gerry Turcotte, I believe that engaging with our ghosts is the ‘only remedy for the distressing legacies’ (Turcotte 2007: 115) of our history, and argue here that fiction has a role in giving the ghosts of our past a voice in the present.

West Gate Bridge collapse – the story of the box girders

Sean Brady relates the failure of several box-girder bridges of the 1960s and 1970s and explains how these led to new design rules and workmanship guidance.

‘Family violence happens to everybody’: gender, mental health and violence in Australian media representations of filicide 2010–2014

This discussion of three cases of filicide reported and reviewed extensively by the Australian news media between 2010 and 2014 is concerned with the politics of representation and its links to material violence. Moving through the architecture of the coverage rather than focusing on it this article observes popular, if mostly tacit, assumptions about masculinity and femininity in representing ‘family violence’. It locates coverage patterns to illustrate perceptions of violence against women and children and inaccurate stereotyping of such family violence as the extraordinary consequences of mental illness, which are mostly reproduced by the Australian media. It is suggested that such media representations are part of a downplaying of family violence as a public issue of urgency.Note – It is acknowledged that those who have survived violent crimes or have personal experience with the trauma and loss associated with such crimes might read this article. While every effort has been made to reproduce media reporting of the cases discussed here with sensitivity and mindfulness, it is advised that some readers might find some of the content of this article distressing.I joined the ranks of the mother who had her three children driven into a lake. I joined the ranks of the mum whose little girl was thrown over the Westgate Bridge. I'm one of those worst things that have ever happened.2

Management of fatigue cracking: West Gate Bridge, Melbourne

Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge has recently been the subject of a major, award-winning strengthening project designed to increase load capacity and reduce maintenance requirements. This paper addresses the management of existing and potential fatigue cracking on the steel spans of the bridge. Recent growth in average vehicle weight and traffic volumes has continued to give rise to fatigue cracking, something the bridge has suffered from since soon after it was opened, particularly in areas directly subject to wheel and axle loads. The paper summarises the work being undertaken on the fatigue-prone areas and focuses on crack monitoring and behaviour. It also describes the fatigue management task, treatment details, constructability issues and the strategy for prioritising the treatment works.

Unions and Collective Bargaining in 2010

An increase in both union members and density, together with the re-election of a Labor government, albeit a minority one, were positive developments for Australian trade unions in 2010. Anticipated changes to the leadership of the Australian Council of Trade Unions occurred with the departure of Sharan Burrow and Ged Kearney assuming the presidency. The Fair Work Act 2009 began to be bedded down with modern awards taking effect from 1 January. Despite the efforts of the federal opposition, the shadow of Work Choices affected the federal election campaign. Unions experienced difficult relationships with state governments across the political spectrum. Asbestos continued to be one of the primary workplace safety issues, while fatalities on the waterfront and the 40th anniversary of the Westgate Bridge disaster served as reminders of the importance of adequate regulatory standards.

GPS deflection monitoring of the West Gate Bridge

The achievable precision and relatively high sampling rates of currently available GPS receivers are well suited for monitoring the movements of long-span engineering structures where the amplitude of movements is often more than a few centimetres and the frequency of vibrations is low (below 10 Hz). However, engineering structures often offer non-ideal environments for GPS data collection due to high multipath interference and obstructions causing cycle slips in the GPS observations. Also, for many engineering structures such as bridge decks, vertical movements are more pronounced and more structurally critical than horizontal movements. Accuracy of GPS determined positions in the vertical direction is typically two to three times poorer than in the horizontal component. This paper describes the results of a GPS deflection monitoring trial on the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne, Australia. The results are compared to the estimated frequencies and movements from the design of the bridge and previous accelerometer campaigns. The frequency information derived from the GPS results is also compared to frequency data extracted from an accelerometer installed close to a GPS receiver. GPS results agree closely to the historical results and recent accelerometer trials for key modal frequencies. This indicates the suitability of GPS receivers to monitor engineering structures that exhibit smaller movements due to their stiffness and in environments not ideally suited to using GPS.

Experimental Investigation on Torsional Behavior of Solid and Box-Section RC Beams Strengthened with CFRP Using Photogrammetry

The construction boom over the last century has resulted in a mature infrastructure network in developed countries. Lately, the issue of maintenance and repair/upgrading of existing structures has become a major issue, particularly in the area of bridges. Fiber- reinforced polymer (FRP) has shown great promise as a state-of-the-art material in flexural and shear strengthening as external reinforcement, but information on its applicability in torsional strengthening is limited. The need for torsional strengthening in bridge box girders is highlighted by the Westgate Bridge in Melbourne, Australia, one of the largest strengthening projects in the world for externally bonded carbon FRP (CFRP) laminates. This paper reports the experimental work in an overall investigation of torsional strengthening of solid and box-section reinforced concrete beams with externally bonded carbon FRP. This was found to be a viable method of torsional strengthening. Photogrammetry was a noncontact measuring technique used in the...

Biology of Porphyra pulchella sp. nov. from Australia and New Zealand

Porphyra pulchella sp. nov. Ackland, West, Scott and Zuccarello was obtained at Mimosa Rock National Park, New South Wales; Westgate Bridge, Victoria, Australia; and Waihau Bay, North Island, New Zealand. It occurs mainly in mangrove habitats and is very small (± 1 mm) in field collections. In laboratory culture at 21 ± 2°C tiny blades (0.5-3.0 mm) reproduced exclusively by archeospores liberated from vegetative cells of the upper sector of the blades. The archeospores displayed amoeboid and gliding motility once discharged. At 14 ± 2°C the blades grew to 25 mm and produced longitudinal spermatangial streaks mixed with ‘phyllosporangial’ streaks. The discharged ‘phyllospores’ showed amoeboid motility and germinated forming asexual blades. A conchocelis phase with typical bangiophycidean pit connections was observed in blade cultures after 8-10 weeks at 14 ± 2°C. Conchocelis filaments produced conchosporangia and these released amoeboid conchospores that developed into archeosporangiate blades. Molecular data indicate that all 3 isolates are genetically identical.

Health Research in Indigenous Communities: Overcoming Anthropology’s Colonial Legacy

Let us imagine that we are sailing across Port Phillip Bay in the southeast of Australia. The sun is low on the horizon and the late-December air is warm. We glide past a colony of fairy penguins at the pier in St Kilda. The West Gate Bridge comes into view. No sooner have we reached the docklands south of the city of Melbourne than we realize that our cruise has drawn to a close.

Strengthening of the West Gate bridge with carbon fibre composites - a proof engineer’s perspective

The world’s biggest project of structural strengthening by means of bonded, high tensile carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) has recently been accomplished at the West Gate Bridge in Melbourne. The West Gate Bridge consists of two multi span precast concrete segmental box girder approach viaducts and a central cable stayed steel box girder Bridge. As a relief measure for traffic congestion an extra lane was provided on the western approach viaduct by utilising the former hard shoulder. This together with the increased (current) traffic loadings has resulted in higher traffic loads being applied to the bridge. The most critical areas of overstress that were identified were the torsional and shear capacity of the spine girder and the capacities of the deck slab and the precast cantilever frames. The main spine beam girder was strengthened by draped tendons to increase the global sag and hog capacity. For the other strengthening requirements, VicRoads decided on a solution proposed by the Design and Construct Contractor, of using high-strength CFRP materials due to their advantages as externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) or near surface mounted reinforcement (NSMR). This paper concentrates on this strengthening using CFRP materials. At the time of the design, these strengthening techniques were not very well established in Australia. They require not only knowledge about the mechanical properties of the innovative materials but also thorough understanding of and particular attention to bond and anchorage issues. The detailing and dimensioning by the Designers was carried out with the assistance of a German Engineering sub-consultant. The EBR and NSMR applications also posed a new challenge for the engineering consultants, Hyder Consulting, acting as Proof Engineers for the entire project. The proof engineering was in fact a gradual and stepwise process of assessment and improvement of the various details and was performed in co-operation with a German expert in Carbon Fibre technology (Prof Rostasy and Dr. Neubauer). This paper will cover the entire project, especially focusing on the EBR and NSMR issues. The authors hope by this, to make Australian engineers more familiar with these innovative techniques but also sensitive to their specific requirements.

Deck Shear-Lag in Symmetric Concrete Bridge Girders

This paper presents an approximate solution in a closed form to predict shear-lag across the deck slab of symmetric concrete bridge girders. The method proposed here requires bending moment and shear force at any girder location of interest determined by a line-beam analysis. Also appropriate girder geometric & material properties, prestress details etc are required as inputs. Predicted deck axial stress distribution is verified against results from finite element analysis done by URS Australia for the Westgate Bridge deck-strengthening project, Melbourne. This approach written in spreadsheet could be conveniently used bv design engineers.

Strengthening of the West Gate Bridge Approach Span, Melbourne

The West Gate Bridge opened to traffic in 1978 linking Melbourne to the western industrial and residential areas. Known worldwide because of the tragic collapse of the main steel spans, the approach spans are receiving a new lease of life. The construction of additional approach lanes has lead to the need for an additional traffic lane on the existing bridge. As it wasn’t originally designed for more than 8 traffic lanes a design check was carried out comparing design loads against current legal vehicle loads. To avoid over stressing the structure the bridges approach structures had to be strengthened.

Jumping from the Westgate Bridge, Melbourne.

To describe characteristics of people who jumped from the Westgate Bridge (identifying risk factors for attempted suicide) and to determine why people may survive such a jump. A retrospective case review (coroners' reports and hospital records) of all people known to have jumped from the Westgate Bridge between 1991 and 1998. We identified 62 people who jumped from the Westgate Bridge over the study period. Seven survived. Forty-one (74%) of those who jumped were male. The average age was 33.8 years (range, 15-58 years). Forty-four (71%) had known mental illness (23 schizophrenia, 21 depression). Thirty-nine (63%) landed in water, falling from a height of 58.5 m. Nineteen (31%) fell onto land and in four cases (6%) the landing site was not determined. All survivors landed in water. Six people died from drowning after the fall, and in eight more deaths drowning was a major or contributing factor. All jumps resulted from suicidal intent, and 12 people (19%) had positive toxicology screens for alcohol or other non-prescription drugs at postmortem. Each year the Westgate Bridge is the scene of about eight suicide attempts by jumping (particularly by men with active psychiatric illness). Some deaths by drowning could be prevented by early detection and rapid emergency service response. The erection of an effective safety barrier would probably prevent more deaths.

Determination of the engineering properties of the coode island silts using a self boring pressuremeter : Hughes, J M O; Ervin, M C; Holden, J C Proc 3rd Australia-New Zealand Conference on Geomechanics, Wellington, 12–16 May 1980, V1, P249–254. Publ Wellington: New Zealand Institution of Engineers, 1980

The eastern approaches of Melbourne's West Gate Bridge are being constructed as an elevated freeway some 2 km long. For the most part this freeway is being supported on large diameter cast in situ reinforced concrete piles. These piles range in diameter from 1.1 to 1.5 m and are socketed into Silurian mudstone and sandstone. These piles are generally in excess of 40 m in length The upper 30 m to 35 m is in alluvial deposits ranging from dense gravels to soft silty clays. The upper 10 m to 20 m of these deposits are in the so-called Coode Island Silts, which are in fact predominantly soft to firm silty clays. These piles must resist the heavy vertical loads from the dead and live loads of the freeway structures as well as lateral loads imposed by thermal stresses in the bridge deck and substantial construction loads resulting from the prestressing of the deck. The vertical loads are all assumed to be carried in the mudstone. The method of analysis of these pile sockets is described by Williams (1980). The in situ strength and moduli, required for this analysis, have been determined by pressuremeter testing. A significant portion of this testing has been carried out using a high pressure pressuremeter described by Hughes and Ervin (1980).

Developing an erection scheme for a large bridge

In the erection of large bridges the structure is successively analysed at each critical stage in the sequence. Invariably such structures are erected by first building the primary structural members, either by cantilevering them forward or lifting them into position, and following this by adding such secondary members as cantilevers, cross members and concrete slabs. The effect of these secondary members is to change the structural characteristics of the bridge and consequently the analysis must be able to take account of this history throughout the sequence. The LEAP suite of programs has been used on several major bridges to analyse and develop viable erection schemes and, using FRIDAY, to assess the critical stages and identify the most highly stressed members. This paper describes in a general way the methods used, and shows examples of the procedure for the particular case of the large cable-stayed West Gate Bridge in Australia.