Roseville Bridge

Roseville Bridge
Early evening traffic on Roseville Bridge, looking south-west.
Coordinates	33°46′23″S 151°12′13″E / 33.77310°S 151.20366°E / -33.77310; 151.20366Coordinates: 33°46′23″S 151°12′13″E / 33.77310°S 151.20366°E / -33.77310; 151.20366
Carries	Warringah Road (A38); (road traffic, bicycles, pedestrians)
Crosses	Middle Harbour
Locale	Roseville
Maintained by	NSW Roads & Maritime Services
Characteristics
Material	Concrete
Total length	377 metres (1,237 ft)
Clearance above	17.4 metres (57 ft)
History
Engineering design by	Box girder
Opened	2 April 1966 (1966-04-02)
Statistics
Daily traffic	~18,000 (2012)
References

The Roseville Bridge, a concrete box girder bridge located adjacent to the suburb of Roseville, crosses the Middle Harbour in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The bridge carries Warringah Road, part of the A38; and is one of two crossings of Middle Harbour inclusive of the Spit Bridge.

The bridge is 377 metres (1,237 ft) long has a clearance of 17.4 metres (57 ft) from the water below. However, the adjacent Pipe Bridge has a clearance of only 11 metres (36 ft). This limitation, combined with only 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) depth of water, make it out of reach for most cruising vessels.

An original bridge across Middle Harbour at Roseville was built jointly by the Willoughby, Ku-ring-gai and Warringah councils. It was built of reinforced concrete by unemployed returned servicemen and opened on 20 September 1924. It was claimed to be the longest bridge of that type in NSW although the bridge across the Hawkesbury River at North Richmond was longer. It was claimed to be the first bridge supported on reinforced concrete piles. This low-level two-lane bridge was located downstream of the current bridge, and connected Babbage Road to what is today called Healey Way, which is the entrance to Davidson Park within Garigal National Park. The first bridge replaced an earlier ferry service consisting of rowing boats across the narrowest section of water.

The suburbs east of Middle Harbour grew rapidly in the years following the opening of Roseville Bridge and on 2 April 1966 the Liberal Premier Robin Askin, the Member for Collaroy at the time, later the Member for Pittwater, opened the current six-lane, high-level bridge. Along with the bridge, a significant upgrade of the approach roads was completed, which became the six-lane Warringah Road. This upgraded section of road is about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long.