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  1. Home
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  3. October
  4. 15
  5. West Gate Bridge

Events on October 15 in history

West Gate Bridge
1970Oct, 15

Thirty-five construction workers are killed when a section of the new West Gate Bridge in Melbourne collapses.

The West Gate Bridge is a steel, box girder, cable-stayed bridge in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, spanning the Yarra River just north of its mouth into Port Phillip. It carries the West Gate Freeway and is a vital link between the inner city (CBD) and Melbourne's western suburbs, with the industrial suburbs in the west, and with the city of Geelong 80 kilometres (50 mi) to the south-west. It is part of one of the busiest road corridors in Australia.

The main river span is 336 metres (1,102 ft) in length, and the height above the water is 58 metres (190 ft). The total length of the bridge is 2,582.6 metres (8,473 ft). It is the fifth-longest in Australia, the longest being Melbourne's Bolte Bridge at 5 kilometres (3.1 mi). The West Gate Bridge is twice as long as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and is one of the highest road decks in Australia, clearing the water at 58 metres (190 ft), with the Sydney Harbour Bridge clearing the water at 49 metres (161 ft).

The bridge passes over Westgate Park, a large environmental and recreational reserve created during the bridge's construction, and carries up to 200,000 vehicles per day.

References

  • West Gate Bridge
  • Melbourne

Choose Another Date

Events on 1970

  • 12Jan

    Nigerian Civil War

    Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
  • 28Apr

    Richard Nixon

    Vietnam War: U.S. President Richard Nixon formally authorizes American combat troops to fight communist sanctuaries in Cambodia.
  • 5Sep

    101st Airborne Division

    Vietnam War: Operation Jefferson Glenn begins: The United States 101st Airborne Division and the South Vietnamese 1st Infantry Division initiate a new operation in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province.
  • 28Sep

    Gamal Abdel Nasser

    Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of a heart attack in Cairo. Anwar Sadat is named as Nasser's temporary successor, and will later become the permanent successor.
  • 8Oct

    Richard Nixon

    Vietnam War: In Paris, a Communist delegation rejects US President Richard Nixon's October 7 peace proposal as "a manoeuvre to deceive world opinion".

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