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New bike bridge planned for Jacana on M80 trail

The old and narrow bridge on the Western Ring Road Trail at Jacana is to be replaced with a vastly more satisfactory structure.

The bridge will not only span the rail tracks, but will also get bikes across Pascoe Vale Road and Electric Street.

The underpass as Pascoe Vale Road, which never feels secure will no longer be needed.

The exiting bridge was built to provide access to platforms at the station, and served a secondary purpose of connecting the Trail through Glenroy.

The new bridge will also service the station, but will be also designed to serve users of the trail and connect the local community.

The new bridge is part of the massive Inland Rail Project, which is modifying and expand the rail freight network on the Australian East Coast so that it can take double stacked shipping containers on freight trains.

In Victoria the project will upgrade the track from Tottenham to Albury.

This requires additional clearances under bridges (7.1 metres) achieved by either lowering the track, or raising the bridge. The bottom container is recessed in a well in the rail car, otherwise the required clearance would be greater.

At Jacana, where the freight line and the suburban line share a corridor, the existing bike and pedestrian bridge is too low for double height trains, so will have to be demolished.

Because the new bridge is considerably higher, the ramps have to be longer, and as a consequence the longer bridge will span both the rail track and the adjacent roads.

Concepts such as the illustration above, have been prepared. The final designs are expected to have bike-friendly curved ramps rather than the rectilinear shapes shown in the illustration.

The existing Pascoe Vale Road bridge over the rail corridor will also be replaced. The new bridge will include bike facilities.

Final designs are expected the second quarter of 2019 while construction is scheduled to take place sometime between 2020 and 2025, with the first double-stacked freight trains running in 2025.

See the Inland Rail Metro Glenroy Precinct Factsheet here.

Find more information on the website here. 

The project is accepting feedback either through a Community Feedback Panel – sign up / log in here, or complete the survey here. 

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