Birkenhead Bridge, Port Adelaide
The Birkenhead Bridge connects Port Adelaide with the LeFevre Peninsula. Prior to its opening in 1940 access to the suburb of Birkenhead was by oared and motorised ferries.
With the increasing industrialisation on the Le Fevre Peninsula including the development of the Outer Harbour, the Jervois Bridge, connecting Port Adelaide and Glanville, was becoming increasing unreliable especially regarding the maintenance demands of its opening mechanism. The South Australian Government identified that a new bridge was required.
The final location of the bridge was subject to dispute. Two locations were identified. A direct connection from Commercial Road to Birkenhead and a connection from Mundy Street to Birkenhead. An Act of the South Australian Parliament set the current location as a compromise between the two alternatives.
The bridge was to be a double bascule construction to allow ships to pass beneath.
Innovations adopted during the construction included the use of pneumatic caissons to allow workers to access the interior of the submerged concrete bridge supports to excavate the sediment from within and the filling with concrete eliminating the need for divers. During a period of high tides, a diving bell was constructed from timber, a world first.
The bridge was opened in 1940 and was one of only 4 bascule bridges in the world that carried trolley buses. The bridge is still in operation (2024) and with the decrease in use in river traffic the bascule does not open as often as when first constructed.
References:
The Advertiser, "Birkenhead Bridge opened" 16 December 1940
Couper-Smartt, John “The History of a Commodious Harbour – Port Adelaide”, Wakefield Press, 2021
