Burnett Bridge, Heritage road bridge in Bundaberg, Australia
Burnett Bridge is a road crossing over the Burnett River in Bundaberg stretching more than 400 meters. It consists of eight metal truss spans supported by cylindrical piers and concrete abutments.
Burnett Bridge was designed by Alfred Barton Brady and opened on 24 August 1900, replacing timber bridges weakened by heavy traffic. It was the fifth longest metal truss bridge in Australia at the time. Half its cost was met by endowment and half by a loan repayable over forty years. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The bridge's abutments carry decorative metal lamps with glass sphere lights on wrought metal bases, possibly installed when gas lighting was converted to electricity. The pylons flanking the roadway are square, with Doric-style entablatures on rusticated bases, and a concrete wall of falling height links them to the lower abutments.
The bridge carries a 7.3-metre roadway with a footpath; the footway was narrowed in the 1950s and widened as a cycleway/footpath in 1993. A pathway beneath the southern abutment gives access to the riverside. The bridge remains part of the city's transport system.
When it opened in 1900, the Burnett Bridge was the fifth longest metal truss bridge in Australia; the others have since been demolished or decommissioned. Its two trusses differ from Brisbane's 1897 Victoria Bridge, which had three. The abutment lanterns were later replaced by spherical lights, possibly at the switch from gas to electricity.
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