The bridge collapse during its construction

Conceived in the early 1960s and completed in 1978, the West Gate Bridge is the world's biggest cable-stayed girder bridge. Before the bridge was built, access to the city of Melbourne and suburbs to the east was possible only by travelling the old Geelong Road.  A toll that was introduced in the initial years has since been removed, making it free to use.

Used by around 150,000 vehicles per day and high enough for shipping to enter the Port of Melbourne, it spans the Yarra River, close to where its mouth empties into Port Phillip Bay. The West Gate Bridge is over 2.5 kilometres in length, with a main river span of 336 metres. It has four traffic lanes plus a breakdown lane in each direction. The bridge has a navigational clearance to low water of 53.7 metres and its two towers stand 102 metres high. Built at a cost of $202 million, construction work commenced on 22th April 1968 and was eventually completed on 15th November 1978.

Midway through construction and four months before the collapse of the West Gate Bridge, on the other side of the world, another box girder bridge designed by Freeman Fox (one of the West Gate bridge contractors) had collapsed during construction in Milford Haven, Wales, killing four workers. When news of this tragedy filtered through, many of the West Gate workers grew increasingly concerned, particularly when they learnt of the similarities in the design of the two bridges. At a mass stop-work meeting, the construction workforce demanded assurances from the project management that what had happened in Milford Haven could not happen to the West Gate. A senior engineer unhesitatingly gave them that assurance, and so, work resumed.
At 11.50 am on 15th October 1970, a 112 metre span of the bridge, known as span 10-11, collapsed during construction. Approximately 2000 tonnes of steel and concrete came crashing down into the muddy banks of the Yarra below, taking workers and their machinery, tools and sheds with them. Thirty-five workers lost their lives that day: many others were injured. Most victims were those working on top of the bridge at the time of the collapse. Some men were lucky enough to be on their morning break away from the site; others simply ran out of the way before the bridge fell on top of them. The scene was one of utter devastation. Emergency services responded quickly and together with nurses, first-aid staff, and other volunteers, worked all day and into the night to search for survivors and account for the dead.
Following the clean-up, work on the bridge ceased while the investigations commenced. It did not resume until 1972, this time under a joint venture; Holland Doorman Long. A royal commission was established soon after the collapse of the bridge to investigate the cause. The report, tabled in parliament in 1971, detailed a number of factors that contributed to the bridge's failure relating to design, construction and management.
West Gate Bridge Memorial

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