Local

Kemp Street bridge girder installation stalls after first lift

Published

14 hours ago

August 23, 2026

The Kemp Street bridge site was deserted over the weekend | © The Junee Bulletin

A MAJOR operation to install the concrete girders for Junee’s new Kemp Street bridge has ground to a halt after just one of the 16 enormous spans was lifted into place.

Despite crews being scheduled to work throughout the weekend, there has been no activity at the site since they appeared to encounter difficulty positioning the first 45-tonne girder on Friday morning.

The lift itself was a success, taking around 10 minutes as the first span was carried over Edgar Street and lowered between the bridge’s eastern abutment and first concrete support.

However, the crane’s lifting frame remained attached under tension for more than an hour as crews worked around both ends of the girder.

Workers appeared to encounter difficulty positioning the span correctly before a site meeting was called shortly before midday.

Following the meeting, crews detached the lifting frame, leaving the first girder resting across Edgar Street, and shut down the site.

While no further spans were installed, the crane was used to unload the second girder from its jinker trailer and lay it on the Edgar Street roadway before being retracted.

No work has been observed at the site since, despite Inland Rail’s latest works notification listing construction hours of 7am to 10pm on Saturday and 8am to 8pm on Sunday.

A third girder which rolled into town on Friday afternoon and remained loaded on its transporter on Hill Street overnight was taken away from the area on Saturday.

Each girder weighs between 44 and 48 tonnes and will support the deck of the new road bridge over the Junee rail corridor.

A total of 16 were expected to be installed over the next week, with a 700-tonne crane assembled on Edgar Street to facilitate the lifts.

The operation was expected to provide the clearest indication yet of the new bridge’s scale, while beginning to close the gap exposed when the century-old overpass was demolished in September last year.

Under the original schedule, the first lifts were to be completed from Edgar Street before the crane was dismantled and reassembled on the opposite side of the bridge.

Installation was expected to continue until Thursday, August 27.

The crane was then scheduled to return to Edgar Street between August 31 and September 2 to install the next two steel sections of the adjoining pedestrian footbridge.

It is not yet known what caused Friday’s setback, how significant the problem may be or what impact it will have on the remaining girder lifts and wider construction schedule.

The Junee Bulletin has sought an update from Inland Rail.