Fetchwikidata: | coordinates |
Bridge Name: | Paringa Bridge |
Carries: | Barmera railway line (until 1982) Sturt Highway |
Crosses: | Murray River |
Locale: | Paringa, South Australia |
Maint: | Department of Planning, Transport & Infrastructure |
Design: | Vertical-lift |
Length: | 173 metres |
Open: | 31 January 1927 |
Closed: | 7 March 1984 (rail only) |
The Paringa Bridge carries the Sturt Highway across the Murray River in Paringa, South Australia. Until 1982, it also carried the Barmera railway line.
The bridge consists of a vertical-lift span long which can rise in one and a half minutes. There are three Pratt truss spans of, and a plate girder span at each end.[1] It was designed by the South Australian Railways (SAR) and fabricated by Perry Engineering of Adelaide. It opened on 31 January 1927.[2] [3] It was built as a road-rail bridge with both the Sturt Highway and Barmera railway lines using the same reservation.[4] Maintenance cost were shared equally between the SAR and Highways department.[5]
Subsequently, road lanes were added on either side to segregate the road and rail traffic.[4] The last train crossed the bridge on 21 May 1982 with the line beyond Renmark formally closed on 7 March 1984.[6] The railway tracks were removed in 1986 and the centre reservation converted to a shared pedestrian and cycle path.[7]
The vertical-lift span is opened twice a day for river traffic.[8]
The bridge was listed as a State Heritage Place on the South Australian Heritage Register on 29 June 1989.[4]