Johnston Street Bridge

About

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 1954-56 by the Country Roads Board (CRB) using a design employing cast-in-place reinforced-concrete curved T girders and an integral flat slab deck. The bridge was designed by Bruce Watson of the Country Roads Board.

Watson went on to become later to become the CRB Chief Bridge Engineer. 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...