Angle Vale Bridge, Heritage stone bridge in Angle Vale, South Australia.
Angle Vale Bridge was a laminated timber deck arch bridge over the Gawler River on Heaslip Road. It had sandstone abutments and wing walls, four laminated timber arch ribs of 26 metres span set in cast iron sockets, and a timber deck carrying a roadway 5 metres wide. It collapsed on 25 May 2023.
Tenders for the Angle Vale Bridge were called in February 1876, and it opened on 22 November 1876, designed by Charles Francis Godfrey Ashwin of the Central Road Board and built by Hack and Parker. It was bypassed in 1966, restored in 1988, and collapsed into the Gawler River on 25 May 2023.
The bridge was opened on 22 November 1876 by Commissioner of Public Works J. Colton, with Miss Heaslip cutting the ribbon, a name still carried by Heaslip Road. Its laminated timber arches were capped to shed water, a local adaptation to Australian timbers that rotted quickly.
The bridge collapsed on 25 May 2023 and is no longer passable; the site is on Heaslip Road, Angle Vale, north of Adelaide. The sandstone abutments and wing walls remain visible from the road, but access to the collapsed deck is unsafe.
The bridge was the last surviving laminated timber deck arch bridge in Australia when it collapsed into the Gawler River on 25 May 2023, days before a scheduled engineering inspection. Its timbers were recovered for assessment of their condition and possible restoration.
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