Bayswater Bridge, one of the most infamous collision sites of its kind in Australia, will be removed by the end of the year.
The Perth bridge, which currently has a 3.8m clearance and a well-known appetite for trucks, is to be replaced by a new structure a metre higher as part of the Metronet New Bayswater Station upgrade.
With the first two beams now in place, WA Transport Minister Rita Saffioti announced Bayswater Bridge — which she said had been crashed into by trucks “hundreds” of times since its construction in the 1960s — was on track to be replaced by the end of the year.
“I know all the truckies will be very, very relieved to know that this bridge is going,” she told media at the announcement.
“I think I see (a crash) probably every fortnight on some sort of social media so there’s been hundreds if not thousands of trucks that have crashed into that bridge.
“Sometimes I think people don’t realise just how big their truck is or how high their load is and because they’re used to going under other bridges which have bigger clearance, they underestimate just how big their load is.”
To commemorate the infamous bridge, which even has its own website cataloging strikes, the state government is asking the community to have their say on how the structure should be farewelled.
To share your idea, visit Farewelling the Bayswater Bridge | My Say Transport.
“The Bayswater Bridge is an infamous icon of Perth and we want to give it the farewell it deserves – so I encourage community members to have their say on what sort of goodbye they think we should host,” said Saffioti.