Como Railway Bridges

A railway bridge was constructed across the Georges River at Como when the Illawarra railway line was extended to Sutherland in 1885.

It was a lattice girder type bridge, 956 feet long with four main girders, and cross girders carried longitudinal girders to support the single rail track. It was supported by round steel pillars set on concrete bases.

Although there were separate up and down tracks on each side of the river, only one train could cross the bridge at a time and by the mid 1960’s it became evident that the river crossing needed to be duplicated. A new bridge was designed in 1968 and construction was completed in 1972.

The new bridge comprises seven spans of adjacent concrete box girders each carrying a ballasted rail track. Each girder is 48 metres long and is simply supported on rocker and roller bearings. These are post–tensioned with Macalloy bars and consist of pre-cast segments with insitu joints and cantilevers.

The old bridge which carries the Woronora water pipeline over the Georges River linking the Penshurst reservoirs to southern dams was converted to a cycle way and walkway allowing people to cross between Oatley to Como.