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Work starting on major new bike bridge

Construction is starting on major new bike link into Melbourne connecting the western suburbs to the city.

A new bridge over the railway yards at West Melbourne will slot in alongside the existing Dynon Road Bridge that connects to Spencer Street and Dryburgh Street.

It is being delivered as part of the West Gate Tunnel Project which is providing new connections between the Tunnel, City Link and Wurundjeri Way.

The 345m long bridge, consisting of 200m of steel truss structure, will take bike riders and pedestrians over 28 operational rail lines.

It will connect the Dynon Road shared trail into the existing North Melbourne Station, and onto the popular Adderley Street route through to La Trobe Street at the West end of the CBD.

Additionally, with the new bridge over the Moonee Ponds Creek, there will be a much improved link to the trail along the Creek to Docklands.

The existing Dynon Road trail currently stretched from the Maribyrnong River at Footscray to the Moonee Ponds Creek.

Site set-up and geological investigations are already underway, and initial piling works for the bridge piers has started.

Spanning the busy operating V/line freight and passenger tracks, Metro Trains tracks, and stabling facilities make the project a complicated build.

The bridge truss will have the concrete surfaced path added in-situ to reduce the weight of the bridge lift and will be fully clad with weathering perforated steel.

The structure will have architectural cladding which interestingly will be hidden from the view of train drivers to prevent them getting the colours confused with track signals.

The shared path on the bridge will be approximately 3 metres wide, have bike-friendly handrails and CCTV security.

As well as bikes and pedestrians, the bridge will carry cabling for power and other services.

Work on this path will continue through the rest of this year.