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The Albert ‘Tibby’ Cotter Walkway is a shared pedestrian and cycle pathway spanning Anzac Parade in Sydney’s east, providing a key link between Central Station and the expansive sporting and entertainment precinct at Moore Park. Originally engaged to undertake optioneering and concept design, Arup was subsequently engaged to deliver detailed design and construction stage services. The walkway was opened in time for the first match of the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, an accelerated total program of just 14 months.
Designing for people and place
The walkway supports a vibrant and interconnected inner city, a key aspiration of the City of Sydney’s vision for the future. Spanning across one of Sydney’s widest arterial roads, the walkway enhances pedestrian and cycle access, providing safer passage to the precinct’s estimated 1.5 million visitors and an additional 350,000 pedestrians each year. The pedestrianised corridor to Central Station provides greater integration with the existing public transport network.
Complex form, complex engineering
The 6 metre wide, 440 metre long bridge features concrete helical approach ramps and a superstructure formed using two slender curved steel box beams. The design accommodates training facilities, utilities, historic view corridors, and existing infrastructure; a sympathetic addition to the local area and its heritage.
The bridge’s complex geometrical form is derived from this integration with its surroundings. The helical approaches curve significantly, and the box beams are designed to minimise visual bulk, featuring a 20° splay and a vertical curvature to suit the topography of the site. This complexity required construction documentation to be delivered completely in 3D to the fabricator.
To achieve the accelerated delivery schedule, which spanned 14 months from the start of concept design to bridge opening, design was focused on prefabrication. The superstructure was erected in seven pre-assembled modules with throw screens prepared to provide edge protection during construction. In a first for Roads and Maritime Services, tuned mass dampers were included in the design of the bridge, not retro-fitted, to ensure performance standards at the bridge’s high profile opening.
