Windan Bridge East Perth

[Pushy]

Western side appears closed, at least from the Burswood end. Anyone shed any light?

[suff]

Noticed this last night.. the western gate is locked, but the eastern gate and ramp is completely closed off? Couldn't see any sign of any notices or alike?

[Double-Gee]

I noticed the usual flooding on the pathway near Burswood from the train on Monday morning and saw the fencing panels up this morning. I plan to ride that way later in the week, so will see what I can find out. The fence could only be seen on the southern side of the eastern end, so the northern side of the bridge may be open?
Are there gates on the bridge? I can't recall seeing any before, so will see if I can get some answers on Wednesday.

[roller]

The fence could only be seen on the southern side of the eastern end, so the northern side of the bridge may be open?

northern side of the bridge is open, nema problema.

[Double-Gee]

I went home early yesterday, so never got all the info. Straight onto it this morning as I noticed railway fencing down on the Burswood end.

There are actually 2 bridges across the river. The road bridge is the Windan Bridge, and as roller mentioned, is still open. However, the Goongoongup Rail Bridge will be closed for several months. While googling to get the right spelling, I found this info from BWA.

The bridge walk/cycle way that runs under Goongoongup rail bridge (adjacent to Windan bridge in East Perth) will be closed from Monday 22 August for about 7 months. The path on Windan Bridge will still be in operation.

There will be no access to the bridge walkway for seven months while the work is being done. Fencing and signage will be in place. The path along Windan Bridge will still be available.

The work involves:

•Removal of the Principal Shared Path entering and exiting the south-east end of the bridge
•Extensive earthworks
•Drilling and construction of two piles
•Final fabrication of the anchors
•Drilling of anchor bore holes
•Insertion of anchor and grouting
•Fabricating and pouring of reaction blocks
•Load testing of anchor
•Excavation below the approach structure
•Strengthening of the existing piles
•Insertion of concrete panels

Train services will continue as usual.
For further information, email projects@pta.wa.gov.au

Same info posted on the PTA site

[wellington_street]

Removal of the PSP but no reinstatement?

[Double-Gee]

Removal of the PSP but no reinstatement?

With a guess, the re-instatement is probably not in the scope of the PTA work and will be done by 'others' once the PTA project work is complete. I should be able to get information from the relevant person on Monday.

[Double-Gee]

My riding has been fairly minimal lately, but I have noticed from the train that the PSP has been re-opened this week. Looks like the time requirements blew out to more than the original 7 months, but the path appears to be back in place and in good condition.

[nachoman]

Windan Bridge rail raised almost 20cm to make Optus Stadium journey safer

Railings on the Windan Bridge pedestrian walkways will be raised to make them safer for the thousands of people using the bridge to get to Optus Stadium.

Part of the concern is to protect cyclists using the walkways if they and pedestrians collide and the riders are thrown from their bikes.

The number of pedestrians heading to the cricket — mostly from the East Perth train station — forced officials to ask cyclists to dismount while using the walkways to prevent the potentially dangerous situation of riders trying to weave between walkers.

I rode across for the Open Day and the ODI match the next Sunday and the crowds seemed fine to navigate at a sensible speed. There was an 'official' on the second ride but I wasn't asked to dismount and only needed a couple of polite bell rings. The area has had a bit of a makeover with new fencing on the approach, new signage and it looks like the homeless guy has been moved on. Perhaps they can make one side of the bridge for cyclists and one side for walkers ?

[Scott_C]

It is interesting how the article phrases the upgrade being primarily due to cyclist safety. The real issue is that the railings are not sufficiently strong to resist a crowd load (stampede) so that if anything happened that caused a crowd crush on the bridge the railing could fail and dump people into the river. Because they need to do an upgrade to the railing for the crowd loads they are also bringing the railing up to the Australian Standard height for a PSP railing. If there was no need to upgrade for the crowd loads I can almost guarantee that they wouldn't increase the height just for cyclist's safety.

As part of other works they are also doing lighting upgrades on the paths that will be used by stadium patrons to get them up to AS levels but aren't going to fix the section of the GFF PSP that really needs a lighting upgrade (the dip past the Balbuk Way boat ramp) as that isn't part of the stadium transport plan. It is frustrating that I need to run "to see" lights because of ~100m of path with dangerously substandard lighting (and a good possibility of fallen branches) when the other 99% of my commute is adequately lit to run "be seen" lights. The fact that it is also potentially the fastest section of my inbound commute coming after a steep drop just makes it more frustrating and adds to brake wear when it is only safe to keep it below 20kph.