Fleetwood - Stonehill Estate, Bacchus Marsh

Creating a landmark structure for Bacchus Marsh

At 54 metres long and over 18 metres high this shared cycle and footbridge is suspended across a natural gorge that spans the Werribee River. And with its striking red towers at entrance and exit, it truly is an outstanding feature in the landscape.

On this iconic project we partnered with Spiire – a passionate team of Civil Engineers, Landscape Architects, Surveyors, Town Planners, Urban Designers, Visual Media Artists, and Water Professionals. Using our end-to-end capabilities, supported with our DesignExecute2™ methodology, we were able to support and collaborate with each group within the Spiire team that was engaged in this project, so no third parties were required.

Together we had direct control over the end product, and we used this autonomy to make sure each stage of the project delivered the right outcome for the developers, Devine Property Group.

Dividing the site was a gorge almost 60 metres wide and 18 metres deep formed by the Werribee River. This presented challenges for pedestrian connectivity and for the installation of the sewer main infrastructure.

The Challenge

The main challenge with this project was the natural gorge created by the Werribee River. At almost 60 metres wide and 18 metres deep this created not only an accessibility challenge for the local residents, it also created an interesting challenge for our Design-Led Engineers and Onsite Construction Crew. Possibly of a less glamorous nature, was the challenge presented by the need for the main sewer infrastructure to be carried by the cycle bridge.

DesignExecute2™ Process at Stonehill Estate, Bacchus Marsh

01 Discover

02 Develop

03 Detail

04 Deliver

⁰¹ Discover

Matt York, Spiire’s Principal Landscape Architect, had already envisioned a solution to meeting both the pedestrian access challenge and with the sewage evacuation challenge, with one innovative solution. So when he arrived at our Discovery session his brief was very clear: could we adapt our Stirling™ cable-stayed bridge so it could also carry a sewer line? The answer from us was a resounding, ‘Yes!’.

⁰² Develop

All Fleetwood ‘Off the Shelf’ products can be customised in our Design Engineering Hub to meet an architect, consultant or developer’s unique needs.

The Stirling is an economical structure for single span bridge requirements, with a span of up to 80m. Because it’s a ‘cable-stayed bridge’ with towers at either one or both ends it has a striking appearance.

The sections consist of beams below the deck-line and with a few modifications, these beams were able to carry the sewage pipe. This gave the local community direct access to the Stonehill neighbourhood activity centre across the Werribee River, while cleverly concealing the sewer pipe from one side of the embankment to the other. This provided both a practical amenity and an attractive piece of infrastructure.

⁰³ Detail

Our Project Management team and Design-Led Engineers controlled the design, construction and manufacturing stages of the project, which ensured a streamlined process right through to the final installation.

Modifying an existing product to deliver on Spiire’s innovative idea required detailed planning. But by learning from our experiences on previous projects, and combining this knowledge with tried and true technology, we were able to transform a complex challenge into a simple and effective outcome – pretty-much exactly in line with the designer’s original vision.

⁰⁴ Deliver

Once it was modified in our Wetherill Park workshop, the delivery and construction of were handled by our Onsite Construction Crew.

The bridge, which consists of a galvanised steel superstructure, fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) decking, painted towers and galvanised steel cables, was transported to Stonehill, where it was painstakingly assembled and installed. The main concrete piers were drilled and poured using a 45-tonne piling rig and four large abutments were also poured on site.

The Solution

Perfect co-location of pedestrian infrastructure and sewer services. An elegant cable-stayed bridge that fits the sewer main neatly in immediately under the deck – almost hidden from view.

The outcome is an elegant cable-stayed bridge featuring a perfect co-location of pedestrian infrastructure with sewer services.

Here you can see the pipe located immediately below the deck and slung from the bridge superstructure. This required careful engineering and integration, which also involved collaboration with the water services team to ensure it delivered the correct tolerances and falls.

Ultimately the bridge ticked all the boxes: it gets people from A to B, easily and safely over the ravine; but it also delivers an essential piece of amenity infrastructure.

It looks pretty damn good too, which is a credit to our team of Design-Led Engineers in our Pyrmont team.

This beautiful mix of galvanised steel, stainless steel, micaceous iron oxide, ‘Lipstick’ red columns and dark grey fibreglass decking certainly makes for a very attractive and distinctive bridge.

In this picture you can see the very discreetly designed balustrade with no apparent structural balustrade posts. The posts incorporate additional balusters to hide any seams or joins in the balustrade length.

Working with Fleetwood Urban has been about confidence on this project. This has certainly been a major component of Stonehill and a major component of our landscape vision for the project. As a landscape architect, it’s key for me to be able to collaborate with specialists such as Fleetwood, to deliver the visions we have from project inception and ensure that what I’m thinking as a designer can actually be achieved on the ground.

Matt York Principal Landscape Architect at Spiire