- Client
- Lake Macquarie City Council
- Project Partners
- Glascott Landscape & Civil (Principal Contractor)
- State
- New South Wales
Cultural and community connection at Lake Macquarie
Located 140km north of Sydney at Lake Macquarie, the Fernleigh Awabakal Shared Track on Belmont Lagoon has existed for almost a quarter of a century but had never been fully completed. FORGE was engaged by Lake Macquarie City Council alongside Glascott Landscape & Civil to help change that, replacing an old and narrow footbridge with a landmark 25-metre single span pedestrian bridge across one of the track's final remaining natural obstacles, Cold Tea Creek.
Detailed, manufactured and installed by FORGE, the unique 'teardrop' design of the new bridge was created by local Indigenous artists and inspired by the Awabakal Dreamtime story of how Belmont Lagoon was formed 'when the moon cried'.
The completed bridge today contributed to a 27km uninterrupted active transport link connecting the towns of Murrays Beach and Adamstown - the longest active transport route anywhere in the Hunter region of NSW. Together with a series of new wetlands boardwalks, amenities and art installations, the Cold Tea Creek bridge was delivered with funding support from the NSW Government Regional Growth Environment and Tourism Fund and the Australian Government Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Fund.
Our involvement.
FORGE was appointed to the project by Lake Macquarie City Council on the direct recommendation of our long-term collaborators Glascott Landscape & Civil, who were the principal contractors for the Fernleigh Awabakal Shared Track upgrade.
Given the concept for the new Cold Tea Creek bridge had already been approved when we were engaged, our job was twofold. The first task was to ensure the approved ‘teardrop’ vision was safe and buildable in the real world within the project budget.
Once the designs had been detailed for final Council approval, our role then shifted seamlessly into the project’s delivery phase - overseeing the manufacturing, pre-assembly and installation works alongside the team at Glascott.
Design Challenge
The teardrop bridge design had already been approved by Council when FORGE was engaged to the project. Our task was to realise it in a way that remained true to the cultural and environmental sensitivities of the original design intent while also being safe and structurally appropriate for the exposed and high-traffic coastal site at Belmont Lagoon.
Achieving this required painstaking design detailing and engineering. While undeniably beautiful to look at, the teardrop aesthetic proved especially challenging to deliver, relying on headstocks to support the bridge’s arched shape via lateral restraint rather than using a larger, self-supporting superstructure. Particular attention was also needed to develop the complex network of footings to safely handle the necessary load transfers.
Construction Challenge
With the new bridge located in a sensitive wetlands zone, heavy machinery access was severely limited. Detailed environmental controls were developed to guide all activity on-site from construction of the footings to the installation of the 25-metre span bridge structure itself and the approaches on both sides.
Bringing considerable expertise in the delivery of bridges and boardwalk in protected habitats, FORGE recommended the key structural sections be pre-assembled in controlled conditions off site to minimise disruption at Cold Tea Creek. This allowed for a highly efficient installation phase with the main sections lifted carefully into position by mobile crane, before the final connections were completed by hand.
Innovation
Features
- 25-metre single span ‘teardrop’ pedestrian bridge
- 400-metre elevated accessible wetlands boardwalk
- Awabakal cultural bronze art installations designed by local Indigenous artists
Materials
- Structural steel
- FRP (decking)
- Stainless steel (wire balustrade)
