The closure of Coppins Crossing Road has seen traffic delays, including on the first day back from holidays.
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00:00If you're looking for a sign that construction on the Molongolo River Bridge has finally
00:07ramped up, this is it.
00:09We've had to coordinate one of the largest cranes in Australia to come and help us with
00:14the lifts.
00:15At 143 metres tall, or roughly the height of Sin City's Venetian, and able to lift
00:20a whopping 1,600 tonnes, or around 10 blue whales, the DMAG is one of only a few machines
00:28capable of manoeuvring these 20 steel girders into place, and erect a 200 metre crossing
00:34through a nature reserve and over the region's largest river.
00:38But just getting it here required coordination across government, manufacturing, logistics
00:44and transport sectors, and three jurisdictions.
00:47That's come across from Western Australia on over 100 flatbed trucks, and the time to
00:52I guess erect that and coordinate that with the delivery of the steel girders themselves,
00:56which are travelling down from Newcastle.
00:58While it'll eventually deliver better connections for growing suburbs, and replace the flood-prone
01:03Coffins Crossing, crane operations mean road closures for three weeks, and plenty of pain
01:09before gain.
01:10We were just amazed with the traffic.
01:12We were coming the right way, but the traffic going in towards the cities was just amazing.
01:17No other access except to go out now via Belconnor.
01:22If you want to go across the Belconnor, you've got to go all the way around on the parkway.
01:25It makes my commute to work longer, so an extra ten minutes.
01:30We'd certainly encourage Canberrans to rethink their routines in terms of when they travel,
01:35if they can.
01:36The bridge isn't expected to be open to traffic until the third quarter of next year.
01:41Canberrans