Riverton Bridge, Road bridge over Canning River in Riverton, Perth, Western Australia
Riverton Bridge is a two-lane road traffic bridge over the Canning River at Riverton, in Perth. The present structure dates from 1954 and stands slightly upstream of the 1911 original. It carries local traffic; the four-lane Shelley Bridge, built in 1978, takes the through route about 470 metres downstream.
Built in 1911 as the Watts Road Bridge, it was renamed Riverton Bridge in 1916. After falling into disrepair by the 1930s, it was replaced in 1954 by the current structure, set slightly upstream of the original. Until the 1970s it carried the east–west High Road between Fremantle and Cannington; the 1978 Leach Highway realignment and the new Shelley Bridge 470 metres downstream left it serving mainly local traffic.
The name Riverton Bridge was also used for the suburb of Riverton in 1937, to distinguish it from the town of Riverton in South Australia. The bridge carried High Road, the main east–west route between Fremantle and Cannington, until the 1970s.
Riverton Bridge carries two lanes of road traffic and is used mainly for local trips since Leach Highway took over east–west traffic in 1978. The concrete four-lane Shelley Bridge, about 470 metres downstream, provides the alternative river crossing.
Part of the 1911 Watts Road Bridge was kept as a swimming jetty after the 1954 replacement, standing slightly downstream of the new crossing. It was demolished in 1980 for safety reasons, so nothing of the old structure remains in the river today.
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