The collapse of the partially completed West Gate Bridge is Victoria's worst-ever industrial accident.
A Royal commission was held to determine the cause of the collapsse;
Wednesday, October 14, 1970: The unbolting of 4-5 Splice on 10-11 North
"On Wednesday 14th October, Ward (D Ward, M.I.C.E., Section Engineer, Freeman Fox and Partners, West Side ) gave formal written instructions for work to be done (to straighten the buckle on span 10-11 "without further delay"). The instructions refers first to the necessity to complete the bolting of the No. 4 diaphragm; unbolting the 4-5 splice is to be done with the object of making possible the completion of the diaphragm connection.
Work started at about 8.30 am on 15th October. After about sixteen bolts had been loosened, there was significant slipping of the two plates relative to one another such that the loosened bolts were jammed tightly in their holes and could not be removed. At this stage Enness (Senior Inspector of Steel Work for Freeman Fox and Partners) suggested the bolts be tightened with the air gun until they broke. The shock reaction of the bolts failing in tension dislodged the broken pieces and thus cleared the holes.
Eventually about 30 bolts were removed from the box 5 side of the splice, extending from the longitudinal centre line to within about 2 feet of the inner web. Also about seven bolts had been removed from box 4 side of the splice, all close to the longitudinal centre line. The bulge had flattened from about 3.5 inches initially to about 1 1/8 inches, but adjacent to the longitudinal centre line the sliding movement was said to have been so great that some holes were completely blind.
At this stage, a dramatic change took place and the signs of distress for which Ward had been on guard suddenly appeared. First the vicious buckle which up to that stage had been limited to the inner upper panel spread into the adjacent two outer upper panels. This was accompanied by the buckling failure of the upper part of the winner web plate.
About this time, Ward and other witnesses say that they felt a gentle settlement of the north half span of the bridge.
Thursday, October 15, 1970: The Collapse
"Ward, at about 11:00 am, tried to contact Hindshaw, telling him that things were not going according to plan and that he (Hindshaw) should come over to the west side as soon as possible. In fact, Crossley (Peter Crossley, B.A, M.I.C.E, Site Engineer, Freeman Fox and Partners) took Ward's telephone call and went out to find Hindshaw. The rebolting was going well and the buckle had come out sufficiently to render it possible to make the bolted connection between the transverse diaphragm in box 4 and the inner upper flange plate. To do this, however, the diagonal brace had to be removed, because its plastically yielded end palm plates would have otherwise prevented the pulling down of the top plating.
Hindshaw arrived on the West span accompanied by Crossley. Hindshaw rapidly assessed the situation which superficially did not appear to be deteriorating. He was nevertheless gravely concerned with what was clearly a potentially dangerous situation and decided to ask Hardenberg's advice. Hindshaw telephoned Hardenberg (Gerit Hardenberg, M.C.E., Senior Representative of Werkspoor-Utrecht, Wescon and WSC in Melbourne) and gave him a brief sketch of the situation asking him to come over. The last thing Hardenberg heard on the phone was as if Hindshaw was thinking out aloud, "Shall I get the bods off?"
Almost immediately after that telephone conversation at 11:50 am, span 10-11 collapsed. Among those who died were Hindshaw, Crossley and Tracy (William Tracy, B.C.E, Section Engineer, JHC, West Side)
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The reconstructed bridge was completed in 1978.
The Memorial Plaque waymarked here was paid for & erected by bridge workers and unveiled on 15 October 1978 in honour and memory of their 35 comrades who died in the collpase of the bridge.
The adjoining Memorial Park was opened on October 15th 2004, the 34th anniversary of the disaster.
Information & historic photographs for this waymark have been taken from the Public Record Office of Victoria's website (
visit link) and the Westgate Bridge's Website (
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