05/10/2026
Our Year 12 Physics students, together with interested Year 12 Mathematics Methods students, enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to step behind the construction fences of the new Swan River Crossings bridge in Fremantle, Australia's first extradosed bridge 👷♀️🌉
Thanks to Project Technical Leader Nick Meredith, the girls experienced an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour, learning about the innovative engineering and complex design challenges involved in delivering one of WA’s most significant infrastructure projects. Students discovered how an extradosed bridge combines the strength of a traditional bridge with the support of cables, allowing longer spans without the need for towering pylons.
One of the project's greatest engineering challenges was designing the bridge to be constructed on site within just one year while remaining lower than Cantonment Hill, requiring innovative engineering solutions. They also learnt how the new bridge was designed to improve marine safety while acknowledging both First Nations and European heritage.
Split into small groups and accompanied by women working across the project, including civil engineers, an environmental scientist, a project lawyer and other specialist team members, students gained a firsthand understanding of the many careers involved in bringing a project of this scale to life.
Highlights included climbing to the top of one of the bridge's soaring uprights to stand in the oculus, a viewpoint that will never again be accessible to the public, before exploring the bridge's internal structure beneath the roadway to learn about its cable tensioning system.
