The Narrows Bridge
The Narrows Bridge was built as part of the Kwinana Freeway, Perth's first freeway road system, the first section of which was opened in 1959. In March 1952 BP Australia (then the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company) reached an agreement with the WA State Government to build a 40 million pound oil refinery at Kwinana.
The Government agreed to provide agreed to provide infrastructure including electricity, water, roads, railways, a safe channel to the sea and a thousand state houses at Kwinana - within three years. In October 1952 BHP agreed to construct a steel rolling mill near the refinery and thus the Kwinana industrial strip was born. The Kwinana Freeway was first mooted at that time as a fast road link between Perth and Kwinana. Commissioner Jim Young suggested that legislation should be passed to allow construction of 'controlled access roads' - the first to be constructed was to be the Kwinana Freeway.
The constriction of the first section, linking Perth city to the Canning Bridge at Applecross, was commenced in 1957 and completed two years later. The second section, extending the freeway to Canning Vale, was completed between the years 1978 and 1982. The final section, linking Kwinana and the Rockingham, was completed in 2003, 50 years after plans to build it had first been approved. The freeway incorporates two major bridges - the Narrows Bridge over the Swan River at South Perth, and the Mount Henry Bridge over the Canning River.
In 1833 a ferry service across the Swan was established at the Narrows, near the site of the present Kwinana Freeway bridge. The first bridge across the river was not built until 1843, however it was not at the Narrows, rather at Heirrison Island.
Now comprising of two near identical five-span concrete bridges, the first of these, designed by G Maunsell & partners and built by Cchristiani & Nielsen and J O Clough & son, was the critical element of the 1955 Stephenson-Hepburn plan which re-shaped the development of Perth. Opened in 1959, it was the first bridge in Australia to use segmental construction, Gambia piles and a lighter web construction using pre-stressing cables.
At the time of its construction, the 97.5 metre central span was the largest of its type in Australia and is still one of the longest in the world. An increase in motor vehicle traffic over the bridge led to a duplicate bridge being erected alongside the original in 2002. Two dedicated bus lanes were included at that time; these lanes have since been converted for use by a double track train service that links Perth and Mandurah.
