Pier Redundancy on Hindmarsh Island Bridge, South Australia

The concept of pier redundancy for bridges over navigable waters can offer a cost-efficient means of maximising safety to users of both the bridge itself and the waterways below, as an alternative to designing piers to withstand maximum vessel impacts. The Hindmarsh Island Bridge, across one of Australia's main navigable rivers demonstrates how this can be achieved through the use of a lightweight fabricated steel superstructure. Hindmarsh Island Bridge spans the Murray River at Goolwa, South Australia, close to the river mouth, and replaces a cable-operated ferry. River Traffic includes private vessels and river cruise vessels. The pier redundancy approach was adopted for this incrementally launched bridge, and the economics of the approach have proved to be compelling. The bridge shares its general design with the Berri Bridge, which was built further upriver some three years earlier with a high priority given to cost savings. Both bridges combine reinforced concrete substructure with the steel superstructure and a concrete deck.