Thinking beyond what you’ve been told is achievable, and proving the impossible is actually possible was inducement enough for a group of engineers at Wagners Composite Fibre Technologies (CFT) to deliver the longest riveted Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) truss bridge in Australia; possibly the world!

Read on to learn more about the 18 metre long by 2 metre wide, heritage green pedestrian bridge which sits over an ephemeral creek west of Proserpine on the central Queensland coast just down from the lawn bowls club on Scottsville Road in Collinsville.

For the tiny township of Collinsville, population 1200, the bridge’s installation was probably fairly uneventful; but for Wagners CFT Lead Structural Engineer Dr Ali Mohammed and his colleagues the bridge represents pushing beyond the threshold of design limitations and challenging long-held beliefs and norms.

“Breaking records is always unique and at 18 metres long the Scottsville Road pedestrian bridge in Collinsville is about 2 metres longer than any other rivetted FRP truss bridge in Australia; possibly the world!” – Dr Ali Mohammed.

The bridge was pre-fabricated at Wagners CFT Wellcamp facility before travelling some 1,100km to Collinsville.  Fifteen to sixteen metres has traditionally been the design threshold for a riveted truss bridge like the Scottsville Road bridge.

“From a design perspective and at 18 metres, normally we would need to have gone with bolted 125 SHS sections because it’s a heavier bridge; heavier in design.”

“But we have used 125 SHS sections from top and bottom chords and webs and with detailed design checks on serviceability limits, vibrations and riveted connections, we were able to work with Wagners R&D team on the Young’s Modulus of material and the riveted connections and push the design to 18 metres,” – Dr Ali Mohammed.

Every FRP truss bridge is challenging to design mainly due to vibrations and for this bridge the challenge was to keep the natural frequencies and acceleration ranges within the pedestrian’s comfort limit according to the design code.

This was a big challenge and it was achieved by adopting adequate truss stiffness, considering the Elastic modulus of Wagners FRP and the depth of the truss so that usability is maintained and aesthetically it looks great.

For Installation Partners, PW Landscapes the construction of the bridge was made very simple as they only had to build an abutment to suit, drop the end in and the rest was plug and play.

“It’s plug and play for us and a fantastic way to do it to minimise the amount of time you are on the work site.  It’s the only way to do a pedstrian bridge if you have access for cranage and someone who can pre-fabricate the bridge off site instead of building it over rocks and dust,”

“Time wise it is three to four weeks quicker when you get the bridge built in a workshop at factory rates, in a controlled environment, by a team who work with the product all the time; making it cheaper, more fficient and quicker,” Owner of PW Landscapes, Matt Stokes.

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Scottsville Bridge 1
Scottsville Bridge 3
Scottsville Bridge Aerial Map
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Scottsville Road Pedestrian Bridge in Collinsville

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