King Street Bridge (Melbourne)

About

The King Street Bridge, also known as the Kings Bridge, is a plate girder bridge that carries King Street over the Yarra River in the city centre of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The bridge continues south as an elevated viaduct, with the Crown Casino built around it in later years. The bridge is welded, steel girder with concrete deck and cantilever-suspended span construction, with suspended spans up to approximately 30 metres (100 ft) long. When it opened in 1961, the bridge had eight lanes across the Yarra River, two through lanes in each direction connecting King Street to Kings Way, in addition to two lanes on each side that connected to King Street to Yarra Bank Road. At the south end north facing on and off ramps connected to Whiteman Street, and the running lanes from the viaduct descend to ground level, with tram route 58 emerging from City Road to the median strip. In the 1990s, the development of Crown Casino closed Yarra Bank Road, and the bridge ramps were connected to the basement carpark of the casino complex. The south end of the bridge has been undergoing differential settlement between the approach ramps resting on fill, and the suspended section supported by bored piles.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.