e-mosty December 2018 e-mosty December 2018 | Page 36

THE TALE OF EJ WHITTEN BRIDGE
Robert Percy, Peter Robinson
COWI UK Limited
Figure 1: Steel boxes resting on concrete crosshead beam
between the existing viaduct structures
OVERVIEW
This article looks at the EJ Whitten Bridge, drawing
lessons on how bridges can better adapt to the future,
and the innovative design approaches needed to take
them there.
The EJ Whitten Bridge opened in 1995 and forms part
of the M80 Orbital Freeway around Melbourne, Aus-
tralia.
The c.518m long bridge is composed of twin multi-
span concrete viaducts, and carries around 160,000
vehicles per day over the Maribyrnong River.
In 2017, widening of the structure commenced
through the addition of a new deck structure between
the existing viaducts.
4/2018
Unusually for a bridge, provision for widening had
been made in the original foundation and pier design,
although increased highway loads and seismic re-
quirements necessitated an innovative design ap-
proach.
This case study looks at how well this bridge has stood
up to the comparatively recent future.
From this, and knowledge from similar works on other
bridges, lessons are then drawn for today’s designers
and those procuring bridges to enable bridges to bet-
ter withstand the test of time and to lower the cost of
future works.