New Hunter River crossing at Maitland, NSW

[Sam Laybutt]

Hi everyone,


For the past couple of years, the RTA has been working on a pretty low profile project compared to their other ones, the construction of a third Hunter River crossing in the Maitland area. The existing two crossings involved either an indirect route via a narrow timber truss bridge at Morpeth, or via a two-lane bridge on Bolwarra Road which feeds traffic directly into Maitland CBD (see http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=pitnacree+nsw&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Pitnacree+New+South+Wales&ll=-32.730686,151.579485&spn=0.059639,0.164795&z=14). The new crossing connects Melbourne Street at East Maitland with Paterson Road just north of Lorn, by way of Pitnacree Road, a new bridge over the river and an upgrade of Flat Road.


RTA Project page: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/constructionmaintenance/majorconstructionprojectsregional/hunter/thirdcrossing/index.html


Photos run from north to south...


Paterson Road southbound approaching Flat Road
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6449.jpg


Flat Road westbound approaching Paterson Road
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6444.jpg


Flat Road eastbound - Flat Road was upgraded from a typical minor rural road to form part of the new route
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6446.jpg


Looking north at McKimms Rd, which leads to Largs
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6451.jpg


Looking north towards McKimms Road. This section was a short section of Glenarvon Road which has been reconstructed and raised above flood level
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6457.jpg


Looking south to the 'Harry Boyle Bridge' over Hunter River
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6459.jpg


Side view of Harry Boyle Bridge
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6463.jpg


Looking north along the Pitnacree Road section. The turnoff on the left is the old alignment of Pitnacree Road - the project involved constructing a new railway overbridge as the old bridge was narrow and on quite poor horizontal and vertical alignment
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6475.jpg


Looking south to the new railway bridge. The old bridge is out of sight to the right
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6476.jpg


Signage at the southern end of the project - the Melbourne St/Lawes St intersection
http://www.ozroads.com.au/misc/maitland/IMG_6478.jpg


An interesting bit of history in this area is Pitnacree Bridge. Once upon a time there was a substantial timber truss bridge over the Hunter River on Pitnacree Road and it was declared as Main Road No. 103, linking East Maitland with Largs. However, during the 1950s, severe flooding and resultant flood mitigation works shifted the course of the Hunter River which now flows much more directly through Pitnacree, instead of its previous meandering course. Pitnacree Road was cut by the new channel of the river and no bridge was provided. The old timber truss bridge was left spanning nothing but sand! At some point this bridge was demolished and there's now no trace it ever existed. I find it rather interesting that 50 years later a new road and bridge are being built right next to a river crossing which was previously abandoned :)


For those interested, the old river channel is visible on Google Maps, you can see it running east-west across Pitnacree Road just north of Brush Farm Road
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=pitnacree+nsw&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Pitnacree+New+South+Wales&ll=-32.725126,151.596608&spn=0.014983,0.041199&z=16


Cheers


Sam

[Paul Rands]

Nice photos and history Sam. Looks odd seeing Newcastle on a sign without a route number :) What's with the blue East Maitland sign?

--
Paul Rands
paul...@gmail.com

On 24/01/2011, at 9:39 PM, Sam Laybutt wrote:

Hi everyone,


For the past couple of years, the RTA has been working on a pretty low profile project compared to their other ones, the construction of a third Hunter River crossing in the Maitland area. The existing two crossings involved either an indirect route via a narrow timber truss bridge at Morpeth, or via a two-lane bridge on Bolwarra Road which feeds traffic directly into Maitland CBD (seehttp://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=pitnacree+nsw&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Pitnacree+New+South+Wales&ll=-32.730686,151.579485&spn=0.059639,0.164795&z=14). The new crossing connects Melbourne Street at East Maitland with Paterson Road just north of Lorn, by way of Pitnacree Road, a new bridge over the river and an upgrade of Flat Road.

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[Sam Laybutt]

Thanks Paul. The white-on-blue seems to be the style for place name signage in Maitland LGA.
 

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Subject: Re: [Aussie Highways] New Hunter River crossing at Maitland, NSW
From: paul...@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 07:50:20 +1100
To: aussie-...@googlegroups.com

[Paul Rands]

Hmm how Swedish of them :) See URL

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/9850/vandigen117631549747887nz2.gif

--
Paul Rands
paul...@gmail.com