The Falcon Street Pedestrian Bridge is a curved, continuous steel box girder structure allowing unimpeded access for pedestrians and cyclists across 19 lanes of the Warringah Freeway. This RTA project involved an extensive stakeholder consultation process to determine the best location and alignment to suit community needs. The specific project constraints of construction access, shallow grades for disabled access, vertical clearance over newly constructed ramps, meeting specific bridge landing points and providing a visually attractive facility which within the existing urban environment dictated a continuous long span steel box girder structure, curved both in plan and elevation.

The pier types and details as well as the deck section and segment lengths were all designed to account for minimal construction related disruption to traffic flows on the busy freeway. Pier stems were precast. The girder top plate provides a wearing surface obviating the need for a heavy concrete deck. The long span girders are slender, providing a span to depth ratio over 40. Provision was made in the design for the installation of Tuned Mass Dampers (TMD’s) to negate dynamic effects. The presentation also deals with the aspects of testing, designing and installation of the TMDs.

The bridge was constructed by Reed Constructions Australia who completed the contract ahead of schedule. The bridge was completed and opened to public use in August 2009.