The removal of the Camp Street Bridge, built in 1927, has begun.
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The pedestrian footbridge was the first to go, last week, it is being stored for future local use.
This week saw the removal of the old lamp posts, they are now in storage and are to be re-used in the landscaping around the new bridge.
Thursday saw the first sections of the old bridge surface removed.
There has been a great deal of interest in the process with passers-by stopping to watch the separation of the bridge platform into sections to be removed by crane to a truck.
The other very visible work has been the building of a temporary rock platform, which Roads and Maritime Services explained will support the heavy plant and equipment (including excavators, trucks and cranes) that will be used to build the new bridge.
Once the bridge has been removed, the platform will be extended upstream to allow access to build the new bridge including foundations, piers and planks.
The platform will include four temporary steel pipes to allow water flow and fish passage, and it will be removed from the lake on completion of the new bridge.
Forbes can expected to see the first stages of the new bridge construction, the piling, towards the end of the month.
Piling will involve driving large steel tubes into the bedrock below the lake to support the new bridge foundations, the RMS explained.
The steel tubes will be filled with reinforced concrete that extends into wide concrete beams to support the 133 precast concrete planks that support the new bridge deck.
During the works, the Camp Street bridge is closed to all traffic.
Local traffic is being diverted around local roads, heavy vehicles are advised to allow extra travel time as the heavy vehicle route is via the Red Bend and Wirrinya roads to the Newell Highway.
As these trucks are going over the Iron Bridge to the Lachlan Valley Way, traffic lights to control one-way traffic are now in place there.
The new bridge will be built across Lake Forbes by August 2020 (weather permitting).
The new bridge will be the same height as the original bridge, but wider: it will have two 3.5 metre lanes with a 1.5 metre shoulder on both sides of the road and cyclist / pedestrian footpaths.
For more information go online to www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/western-nsw/forbes-bridge