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Rail bridge replaced within five days in Sydney

An old rail bridge was demolished and a new one installed within five days at Castlereagh St. in the suburb of Penrith in Sydney’s west.

The work was carried out within five days, according to NSW’s state minister for transport and roads Andrew Constance, who said crews worked around the clock to reopen Castlereagh Road by New Year’s Eve.

“Crews worked hard to carefully take out the old bridge, which included removing rail tracks and signals, sections of the existing embankments and the old bridge supports.

Around 200 workers were part of the crew to replace the old rail bridge with the new one.

Concrete and steel, weighing up to 5000 tonnes, was removed to allow crews to rebuild embankments and install rail tracks and signals.

The new reinforced concrete rail bridge is almost 40 metres long and weighs around 2800 tonnes and will enable crews to widen the road.

Once complete in late 2020, the Mulgoa Road/Castlereagh Road upgrade will provide increased road capacity for expected future growth in the Penrith region.

According to Constance, specialist equipment from Belgium made the rail bridge installation process easier, essentially allowing the new bridge to slide into place.