The Causeway
Encyclopedia
Swan River (Western Australia)
The Swan River estuary flows through the city of Perth, in the south west of Western Australia. Its lower reaches are relatively wide and deep, with few constrictions, while the upper reaches are usually quite narrow and shallow....
in Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
at the eastern end of Perth Water
Perth Water
Perth Water is the section of the Swan River between the Causeway to the east, and Narrows Bridge to the west - a large wide but shallow section of river on the southern edge of the City of Perth, Western Australia, and the northern edge of the suburb South Perth. Retrieved 29 December 2006...
. Made up of two bridges on either side of Heirisson Island
Heirisson Island
Heirisson Island is an island in the Swan River in Western Australia at the eastern end of Perth Water . The city of Perth and the Town of Victoria Park are linked by The Causeway which is actually two bridges which span the two foreshores and the island...
, the crossing links the City of Perth
City of Perth
The City of Perth is a local government area and body, within the Perth Metropolitan Area, which is the capital of Western Australia. The local government body is commonly known as Perth City Council. The city covers the Perth central business district and surrounding suburbs...
and Victoria Park
Victoria Park, Western Australia
The Town of Victoria Park is a Local Government Area of Western Australia. It covers an area of 17.62 km² in metropolitan Perth, the capital of Western Australia. The Town of Victoria Park maintains 154.55 km of roads, a little over 1 km² of parks and gardens and has a...
.
Originally the site of mudflats which restricted river navigation, the Colony Government constructed a causeway and bridge across the site. When floods in 1862 almost destroyed it, the structure was rebuilt and raised to better withstand future floods. Over the following decades, the three bridges making up this second Causeway were widened several times, and they were eventually replaced by the present pair of Causeway bridges in 1952. The current Causeway bridges were the first in Western Australia to use steel composite construction, and have been recognised for their heritage value by their entry on the Western Australian Register of Heritage Places.
First Causeway: 1843
Swan River Colony
The Swan River Colony was a British settlement established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. The name was a pars pro toto for Western Australia. In 1832, the colony was officially renamed Western Australia, when the colony's founding Lieutenant-Governor, Captain James Stirling,...
was settled in 1829, settlers lobbied for the construction of a road across the mudflats in the Swan River at the eastern end of the town. A preliminary survey of the site was conducted in 1834 by the Commissioner for Roads and Bridges, George Fletcher Moore
George Fletcher Moore
George Fletcher Moore was a prominent early settler in colonial Western Australia, and "one [of] the key figures in early Western Australia's ruling elite"...
, together with Surveyor General
Surveyor General of Western Australia
The Surveyor General of Western Australia is the person nominally responsible for government surveying in Western Australia.In the early history of Western Australia, the office of surveyor general was one of the most important public offices...
John Septimus Roe
John Septimus Roe
John Septimus Roe was the first Surveyor-General of Western Australia. He was a renowned explorer, and a Member of Western Australia's Legislative and Executive Councils for nearly 40 years.-Early life:...
. A public meeting on 17 February 1837 passed a resolution urging the colony's government to construct the road at the site, and Roe showed the public suggested plans for the proposed causeway. A year later, in January 1838, the Perth Gazette noted that preliminary work had been carried out towards building the causeway, which is thought to have been the upgrading of Adelaide Terrace
Adelaide Terrace
Adelaide Terrace, Perth, is an easterly extension of, the main street in the city of Perth, Western Australia, St Georges Terrace . It runs parallel to the Swan River and is a major arterial road through the central business district....
from the "bush track" it was previously.
A committee was set up to investigate into the viability of a causeway at the site. On 16 February 1839 plans which had been prepared by Roe were submitted by the committee's chairman to Henry Trigg
Henry Trigg
Henry Trigg was the Superintendent of Public Works in Western Australia from 1838 to 1851.Trigg Beach in the norther suburbs of Perth was named after him....
, the Superintendent of Public Works. Trigg called for other plans and prepared estimates. At a meeting of the committee on 27 February 1839, Trigg submitted a plan designed by Major Frederick Irwin
Frederick Irwin
Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Chidley Irwin was acting Governor of Western Australia from 1847 to 1848.Born in 1788 in Enniskillen, Ireland, Frederick Chidley Irwin was the son of Reverend James Irwin. In 1808, he was commissioned into the 83rd Regiment of Foot...
, which was estimated to cost £2,300/-. The committee cut the estimated figure to £1,800/-, and waited for Governor Hutt to specify how much could be funded by the government.
This original "causeway" consisted of a central bridge (for river navigation), with a raised rampart on either side. The first pile
Deep foundation
A deep foundation is a type of foundation distinguished from shallow foundations by the depth they are embedded into the ground. There are many reasons a geotechnical engineer would recommend a deep foundation over a shallow foundation, but some of the common reasons are very large design loads, a...
of the central bridge was driven
Pile driver
A pile driver is a mechanical device used to drive piles into soil to provide foundation support for buildings or other structures. The term is also used in reference to members of the construction crew that work with pile-driving rigs....
home on 2 November 1840. The bridge was completed in 1841, costing £449/10/-, however the approaches to the bridge took longer to complete. The causeway was sufficiently completed in January 1842 to be used by horsemen, and the causeway was finally finished in May 1843 at a total cost of £1,814/10/-. It was officially opened on 24 May 1843 by J. W. Hardey, the chairman of the Road Trust, in the presence of only one other person, one of his friends.
The causeway was originally a toll road, and costs for crossing ranged from 1d (for a person on foot) to 6d (for a horse-drawn cart
Horse-drawn vehicle
A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load...
). The tolls were subject to an additional levy of 50% during the night hours. The tolls were later removed, and it appears to have been Perth's only toll road.
Second Causeway: 1862
Mounts Bay Road, Perth
Mounts Bay Road is a major road in Perth, Western Australia, extending southwest from the central business district along the north bank of the Swan River, at the base of Kings Park...
was completely submerged, and the original causeway was almost destroyed after being under seven or eight feet of water. However, Governor
Governor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
John Hampton
John Hampton
John Stephen Hampton was Governor of Western Australia from 1862 to 1868.-Early life:Little is known of John Hampton's early life. His death certificate states that he was born in 1810, but other evidence suggests 1806 or perhaps 1807; these latter figures are considered more likely...
ordered the causeway be rehabilitated and raised several feet. The new Causeway was designed by Richard Roach Jewell and built by convicts.
The opening of the newly-refurbished Causeway was a more pompous affair than that of the first Causeway. The second causeway was to be opened by the Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh
The Duke of Edinburgh is a British royal title, named after the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, which has been conferred upon members of the British royal family only four times times since its creation in 1726...
, Prince Alfred
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the third Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and reigned from 1893 to 1900. He was also a member of the British Royal Family, the second son and fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha...
, however the British Navy ship HMS Galatea
HMS Galatea (1859)
HMS Galatea was an Ariadne class 26-gun sixth rate wooden screw frigate launched in 1859 and broken up 1883. In 1866 she went on a world cruise, under the command of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh....
failed to call in to Western Australia on its way to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. As a result, the Governor proceeded with the opening in the Duke's absence. On 12 November 1867 the Governor drove "through an avenue of flags and bunting" from Government House to the Causeway. There were military corps, a band and a great crowd present for the opening. After speeches by dignitaries, the Governor declared the new Causeway open with the following words:
The proceedings were then disrupted when a youngster "raced across the newly-opened bridge before the Governor's procession" on horseback after announcing the following to the astonished crowd:
The parade, including the Governor's carriage, then proceeded over the new Causeway after the boy. The Governor's procession continued on steam boats upstream to Guildford where the Governor opened the new Guildford and Helena Bridges.
This second Causeway was made up of three bridges with a combined length of 1600 feet (487.7 m). Budget constraints encountered during construction meant that the bridges were structurally quite weak. A maximum of 4480 pounds (2 t) was initially allowed across at a time (or six head of cattle).
This Causeway was modified several times during its life. In 1899 it was widened by the addition of a footpath, while by 1904 it had been strengthened and widened by an average of 2.85 metres (9.4 ft). In June 1905 the Causeway was placed under the control of the Minister for Works. By 1945 the Causeway bridges were widened a further 37 feet (11.3 m) on their downstream side.
Third Causeway: 1952
Plans to build a new bridge at The Narrows downstream from the Causeway in the aftermath of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
were put on hold while a new Causeway could be constructed. Vehicle traffic using the Causeway had almost doubled between 1930 and 1939.
The current Causeway was built between 1947 and 1952, and designed by E W C Godfrey. This current Causeway is made up of two bridges, meeting at Heirisson Island. Considerable work was carried out to dredge the river channels to provide much wider navigation channels. The Heirisson Islands were turned into a single island and a substantial portion of land beside Trinity College
Trinity College, Perth
Trinity College, is an independent day school for boys, located in East Perth, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. The school was established in 1962, Trinity is a school in the Edmund Rice Tradition. and is located on reclaimed land adjacent to the Swan River foreshore...
was reclaimed
Land reclamation
Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...
.
The bridges were the "first truly modern bridges" built in Perth after World War II, being the first bridges in Western Australia to use steel composite construction, and only the second (and third) in Australia. The bridges have a combined length of 1119 feet (341.1 m), both feature a 62 feet (18.9 m) wide roadway supporting six traffic lanes, and a footway 8 feet (2.4 m) wide on the western side of the bridges. In order to achieve a sufficiently high clearance above the river channels at high tide, the bridges have graded approaches and the roadway surfaces follow vertical curves.
The southeastern bridge is the longer of the two, at 737 feet (224.6 m) long. It is made up of 11 spans
Span (architecture)
Span is the distance between two intermediate supports for a structure, e.g. a beam or a bridge.A span can be closed by a solid beam or of a rope...
, each made up of nine welded plate girders
Plate girder bridge
A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate girders. The plate girders are typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates , which are welded or, in older bridges, bolted or riveted together to form the vertical web and horizontal flanges of the beam...
, with a 33 feet (10.1 m) relieving span at each end. The northwestern bridge is shorter, at only 382 feet (116.4 m) in length, and is made up of five spans with a 35 feet (10.7 m) relieving span at each end. The bridge decks are of reinforced concrete supported by the plate girders, which are in turn freely supported by the concrete piers.
Jarrah
Eucalyptus marginata is one of the most common species of Eucalyptus tree in the southwest of Western Australia. The tree and the wood are usually referred to by the Aboriginal name Jarrah...
timber piles, rather than concrete. Additionally, a steel plate shortage forced the bridge's designers to avoid the use of steel to design the forms in the bridge's superstructure. Also, the cement that was used on the bridges had to be sourced from seven different sources, which led to different durability for different parts of the bridges.
The previous Causeway had carried electric tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s, and it was expected that the new Causeway would also carry trams, or perhaps trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
es instead. However, the proposed overhead wires were deemed too ugly for the new bridge, and between £30,000 and £40,000 could be saved by using bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es instead. The routes using the Causeway were replaced with bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
services, but the bridges as constructed were nonetheless designed to be able to carry trams.
The southeastern bridge was the first to be completed, and was opened to traffic on 19 September 1952, with traffic continuing to use the other two bridges of the previous Causeway. Work then continued on the northwestern bridge and the further reclamation of land.
By 1954, traffic entering the city by the Causeway had doubled, leading to renewed calls for a new bridge further west at The Narrows. That bridge was eventually built as the Narrows Bridge. Opened in 1959, the Narrows Bridge alleviated the traffic problems at the Causeway; the Narrows and the Causeway continued to be the only road crossings of the Swan River between Fremantle
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
and Maylands
Maylands, Western Australia
Maylands is a suburb located approximately northeast of Perth centred on the Midland railway line and located on the northern bank of the Swan River....
until the Windan Bridge of the Graham Farmer Freeway
Graham Farmer Freeway
The Graham Farmer Freeway is a major part of the metropolitan road infrastructure in Perth, Western Australia. It is long and links Rivervale and East Perth with West Perth, bypassing Perth's central business district...
opened in 2000. The opening of the latter eastern bypass coincided with the conversion of the Causeway's two centre lanes to bus lane
Bus lane
A bus lane or bus only lane is a lane restricted to buses, and generally used to speed up public transport that would be otherwise held up by traffic congestion...
s. It also lowered traffic levels on the Causeway from 107,000 cars per day to 70,000 within six months.
The variable-quality cement which had been used in the construction of the Causeway bridges meant that by the early 2000s, they had suffered significant damage, leading to a repair contract being awarded to Kulin Group in 2004. Localised patching of cracks in the piers was undertaken. At the ends of the piers, the cracking was more substantial and had to be "tied back" with carbon fibre reinforcement. Repairs were then coated with moisture-resistant coating, and were expected to lengthen the life of the bridges by decades.
The Causeway bridges received an interim entry on the Western Australian Register of Heritage Places on 30 June 1998, and this was made permanent on 30 October 1998. They were also classified by the National Trust on 8 June 1998.
.jpg)
External links
- Western Australian Register of Heritage Places entry for The Causeway
- Archival photographs of the Causeway over the years held by the State Library of Western AustraliaState Library of Western AustraliaThe State Library of Western Australia is located within the building known as the Alexander Library Building, in the Cultural Centre of Perth, Western Australia....