Situated approximately halfway between the
Tasman Bridge and the
Bridgewater Bridge, the Bowen Bridge was constructed to mitigate any future failure of the city's bridges following the
Tasman Bridge disaster. The
State and
Federal Governments established the Joint Committee in November 1975 to oversee the design and construction of a bridge across the River Derwent near Dowsings Point. Maunsell and Partners served as
consulting engineers and
Leighton-Candac, awarded the contract in 1980, completed the construction.
Design The foundational design primarily aimed to ensure the river
piers could withstand impacts from
barges traveling at operating speeds () assisted by the current (). All piers were specifically engineered to endure an impact force of at an angle of up to 45 degrees from the
pile cap centre line, while other directions could sustain a force of . This approach accounted for potential impact from future river barges of up to of
deadweight tonnage. The underlying philosophy involved creating substantial gravity-based foundation structures capable of generating adequate force to absorb the energy and deform the
bows of barges during impact. ==Gallery==