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Johnston Street Bridge
Johnston Street Bridge
	Johnston Street bridge in April 2017
Coordinates	37°48′03″S 145°00′15″E / 37.800761°S 145.004052°E
Carries	Johnston Street, Studley Park Road
Crosses	Yarra River
Locale	Abbotsford, Victoria, Kew, Victoria
Owner	VicRoads
Characteristics
Material	Reinforced concrete
Total length	30m
History
Designer	Bruce A. Watson CE
Constructed by	Country Roads Board
Opened	1956
Location

Johnston Street Bridge is a concrete road bridge crossing the Yarra River between the Melbourne suburbs of Abbotsford and Kew.

The current bridge was constructed in 1954-6 by the Victorian Country Roads Board (CRB) using a design employing cast-in-place reinforced-concrete curved T girders and an integral flat slab deck.^[1]^[2] The bridge was designed by Bruce A. Watson of the Country Roads Board. Watson went on to become later to become the CRB Chief Bridge Engineer.^[3]

The early 1837 survey for the Melbourne township established a preferred route to the east of the Yarra River along Johnston Street, which was confirmed in La Trobe's 1841 plan of proposed roads to outlying districts. This became one of the earliest road construction projects, with gangs of unemployed immigrants undertaking roadworks in 1842. Johnston Street was named after a Melbourne City Councillor in 1851 and a toll gate was installed soon after. The river could be forded nearby at Dight's Falls, but advocates for a bridge over the Yarra in 1855 debated over a preferred crossing at this site or near the end of Clarke Street or near the current Collins Footbridge. Another privately owned "Penny Bridge" was provided nearby at the end of Church Street in 1857.^[4]

The bridge is also known as the Studley Park Road bridge, with the first bridge having been built as a laminated timber arch with timber lattice truss spandrels in 1858^[5]^[6] and was replaced with riveted wrought iron girders in 1876.^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]

A section of the original riveted wrought iron lattice handrail survives as a fence across the surviving eastern bluestone abutment. The 1876 structure was built by W. A. Shand, father-in-law of prominent ironworker and engineer, Mephan Ferguson.^[11] The wrought iron spans were about 18 metres on the same alignment, adapting the original abutments. This was one of the first local bridges to employ cylindrical iron columns, which were filled with concrete to provide slender piers to reduce any impediment floodwaters.

It is located on State Route 34.

The Abbotsford end of the bridge was the terminus of the Collingwood cable tramway line, with a car shed located nearby.^[12] The car shed has now been demolished.^[13] The line closed in 1939, and nowadays bus routes 200, 202 and 207 use the bridge.

References

^ CRB Annual Reports, 1955, 1956 & 1957; Historic Drawing Files VicRoads Prospect Hill office, dwgs 17290-369, 18505.
^ "Fifteen New Bridges in C.R.B. Programme". The Age. No. 30, 691. Victoria, Australia. 11 September 1953. p. 3. Retrieved 22 April 2017 – via National Library of Australia., ...Johnston Street bridge, over the Yarra River, connecting Collingwood and Kew, would be built on a 45 deg. angle to the river...
^ National Trust Study of Victoria’s Concrete Road Bridges Vol 2, Gary Vines, 2010
^ Max Lay, Melbourne Miles The Story of Melbourne's Roads, Australian Scholarly Publishing 2003.
^ Bridge at Collingwood 1857 - 1876 Johnston Street Bridge, Picture Victoria, ID: 9134, Image held by Collingwood Library, Org ID: CL PIC 286 Part of Views of Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania
^ "THE NEWS OF THE DAY". The Age. No. 1, 283. Victoria, Australia. 1 December 1858. p. 3. Retrieved 22 April 2017 – via National Library of Australia., ...As no public notification of the fact has been issued, it may not be generally known to the inhabitants of Collingwood and the neighborhood, that the Johnston street Bridge is now open for public traffic...
^ National Library Digital Collection nla.pic-an10608594-56, Johnston Street Bridge on the Yarra, Abbotsford, Victoria, ca. 1880 [picture]. 1880? 1 photograph : albumen silver; 13.8 x 19.2 cm.
^ "DEPUTATIONS.: BRIDGE OVER JOHNSTON-STREET, COLLINGWOOD". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 7, 415. Victoria, Australia. 16 March 1870. p. 6. Retrieved 22 April 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "THE NEW JOHNSTON-STREET BRIDGE". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 9, 465. Victoria, Australia. 14 October 1876. p. 9. Retrieved 22 April 2017 – via National Library of Australia., ...A new bridge over the River Yarra connecting East Collingwood with Kew will be opened for traffic on Monday next,...
^ "NEWS OF THE DAY". The Age. No. 6774. Victoria, Australia. 21 October 1876. p. 5. Retrieved 22 April 2017 – via National Library of Australia., ...It is announced that the Johnston-street-bridge, Kew, is now open for traffic...
^ James Ferguson, Mephan Fergusson, a Biography 1992
^ Heritage Council Victoria, FORMER JOHNSTON STREET CABLE TRAM CAR SHED, https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/116187, retrieved 22 April 2020
^ Vines, Gary, Melbourne Metropolitan Tramways Study 2011, 2011, Heritage Council Victoria, https://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/61452/Tram-Heritage-Places_Part1.pdf