Piling Construction Begins for the Fitzroy River Bridge on Australia's AUD 1.98 Billion Rockhampton Ring Road

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 21, the Rockhampton Ring Road project in Queensland, Australia, reached a new bridge construction milestone, with foundation piling now underway for the new Fitzroy River Bridge connecting Pink Lily and Parkhurst. The bridge, with a total length of 435 meters, is the third road bridge crossing the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton and a key control project of the AUD 1.98 billion Rockhampton Ring Road. The project is jointly funded by the Australian Federal Government and the Queensland State Government, with the Federal Government contributing AUD 1.4 billion and the State Government contributing AUD 580 million.

Prior to construction of the permanent structure of the Fitzroy River Bridge, the project has built a 270-meter-long temporary work bridge in the river channel for the access of large machinery, construction materials, and bridge components. Currently, the temporary work platform is still 5 spans away from the Parkhurst riverbank. The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads has established a 250-meter construction exclusion zone in the river channel, with the full closure period running from July 13, 2026, to June 30, 2028, providing working conditions for the permanent bridge piling, superstructure, and in-river construction.

Another major structure of the project—the Capricorn Highway connection bridge—has also entered the late stage of superstructure construction. The bridge, with a total length of 841 meters, requires the installation of 150 Super T girders, each 34 meters long and weighing 84 tonnes. The latest official information shows that all 150 girders have been installed. The Acciona-Fulton Hogan joint venture responsible for the southern section has previously completed large-scale earthworks and bridge foundation construction. As of July, it had transported 1.31 million tonnes of earthwork materials and completed the installation of 696 piles within its contract scope.

The installation of the factory building and gantry cranes at the Werribee Street precast yard in North Rockhampton has also been completed, with the facility scheduled to be put into use in October. The precast yard will produce 312 concrete segments for the new Fitzroy River Bridge, directly serving the subsequent superstructure construction of the bridge. A total of 18 bridges will be built along the entire Rockhampton Ring Road, including 8 road overpasses and 7 waterway crossing bridges.

The Rockhampton Ring Road includes 17.4 kilometers of new roads, of which 14.7 kilometers is a new ring road alignment west of the Bruce Highway, extending from the Capricorn Highway in the south to the intersection of the Bruce Highway and Rockhampton–Yeppoon Road in the north. The mainline will feature new two-lane and four-lane sections, along with new highway intersections, urban connector roads, and flood mitigation facilities. The main works entered full-scale construction in mid-2025.

The southern section of the project is mainly implemented by the Acciona and Fulton Hogan joint venture, while the northern section is undertaken by the BMD and Bielby joint venture. The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads has opened an industry registration channel for the project, allowing suppliers of equipment, materials, and engineering services to submit their company capability information to the two joint ventures respectively.