Yandhai River Crossing – Walking in the Past and Present

Published: April 5, 2021Categories: Movement & TransportTags:

Abstract

The Yandhai River Crossing is an urban design project of excellence centred on a pedestrian bridge recently built in the city of Penrith, within Sydney Metropolitan Area. It brings together architecture, landscape architecture and engineering creatively to produce something unique that contributes to the landscape, community and future of the city. “When we started this project nearly 10 years ago we thought it was important for the people of Penrith to allow them to enjoy the river and landscape and provide a piece of high quality design as part of the city master plan. Little did we realise the value it would have a short time after it opened in 2020 – the need for people to see their landscape, to escape the Covid-19 lockdown into their own neighbourhoods and to exercise and be revitalized.” Gareth Collins. “The incorporation of terraces, balconies and seating for viewing and social gathering makes the crossing more than a bridge.” Miguel Wustemann and Judy van Gelderen, KI Studio.

About the Authors

Raeburn Chapman is an Independent Urban Design Commentator and Advisor specializing in transport infrastructure.
Contact: editor@urbandesignreview.com Gareth Collins is Director of the Centre for Urban Design, Transport for New South Wales, Australia, and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA).
Contact: Gareth.COLLINS@transport.nsw.gov.au

Article

There has been increasing focus in the state of New South Wales on public investment in infrastructure for active transport. Special attention has been given to bridges for bicycles and pedestrians and their district and regional connections, an important part of the design of our towns and cities. The Yandhai River Crossing of the Nepean River, which connects the city of Penrith with Emu Plains at the base of the Blue Mountains, is the most recent example. It is presented here for its unique design and contribution to landscape and place physically and symbolically. The outcome transcends the functional but is something of beauty in which imaginative architecture, landscape design and engineering come together to make a whole and stimulate the senses. It is designed as more than a river crossing, but a destination and meeting place in the Nepean region. As part of its conception, it also opens the two foreshores for public use and creates a 6.4-kilometre loop section of the Great River Walk. While the bridge is integrated into the landscape, incorporating place characteristics and values, it creates a new landscape. In this, it symbolizes the future of Penrith as a River City, consistent with the city’s vision and master plan (yet to be implemented) and the strategy of the Greater Sydney Planning Commission. At the same time, it pays respect to past history and culture, the heritage of the State listed Victoria Bridge, the old ferry roads and river buildings, the natural history of the river and the cultural history of the First Nations people through its naming. The wonderful name “Yandhai,” in Aboriginal Darug language, means “walking in the past and present”. It is reflective of “story”, that is, the past use of this location along the river as a crossing by the Darug people, who have strong traditional ties to western Sydney, and thereby signifies the bridge’s place. In modern times, prior to building the Yandhai River Crossing, there was an old walled-in railway bridge with a narrow path and no views. Penrith was a growing ‘city’ with no active transport connection to the Great River or the national park beyond. Because the old bridge was a State-listed heritage item it was not possible to attach to it a pedestrian cantilevered pathway, so Transport for New South Wales committed to a new project. At the outset architect/urban designer Tim Williams, with Penrith City Council, approached the Centre for Urban Design requesting an exemplary approach to bridge design. They were nervous about receiving a standard, place-less, response. Tim Williams, with French company Campement Urbain, had won the Australia Award for Urban Design 2012 for the vision they created for the future of Penrith.

Figure 1. Penrith Vision: The vision for Penrith prepared by Tim Williams/Campement Urbain envisaged a substantial pedestrian crossing of the Penrith River (foreground) as a key element of the urban fabric and overall landscape to which the road agency responded.

The Transport development team (at the time Roads and Maritime Services) then took it on with the Centre for Urban Design and in consultation with Penrith Council and the community. Three documents were used as a basis for options exploration, with the aim of achieving a context-sensitive solution: The Penrith Vision, and the Centre for Urban Design’s document Beyond the Pavement; Urban Design Policy, Procedures and Design Principles (which itself won the Australia Award for Urban Design in 2010) and Bridge Aesthetics: Design Guideline to Improve the Appearance of Bridges in New South Wales. These documents set the bar. All options had to meet the height requirements for flood (with a clearance higher than the existing bridge), the design requirements for afflux and the lateral clearance for the Olympic rowing course. The design put forward by KI Studio was selected.

Figure 2. The submission by KI Studio was founded on contextual analysis that included visual axes and historic lines of communication across the river which fixed the location for a new bridge for active transport.
Figure 3. The submission by KI Studio modelled a curvilinear bridge along this location with a structural form similar to that of the final design.

It was a unique Warren Truss arrangement that created a cathedral-like space, a place to dwell and view from, a day and night time experience that would be memorable and a generous active transport connection. Its design was part of the landscape responding to: The river and sensuous form of its banks; the old ferry lanes; the avenues of trees, especially the jacaranda that marked the alignment of the historic Punt Road river crossing; the old riverside buildings and heritage, including the historic Emu Plains Homestead estate; the greater visual basin with the Blue Mountains National Park backdrop. The design proposal was in synchronization with the vision for Penrith and created, in this respect, a landmark structure, aligned with key visual axes. The processes of design development and construction were then led by project managers, the Centre for Urban Design and bridge designers. The original concept, curvilinear in shape, was modified to a straight line, with the eastern abutment relocated, to make the project more feasible financially. It required numerous iterations, but the fundamental design integrity has been maintained.

Figure 4. The final design resolution after rounds of iteration and feasibility testing was that of a straight line with a similar structural form which, when built, achieved an elegant whole with a long span, and which kept the integrity of the original design concept.

 

Figure 5. The bridge was designed to be experienced by day and night and to create a landmark in the river setting.

There are a number of characteristics that make the design special. Its elegance is attributable to its span, form, balustrade treatment, shape of piers and how the bridge meets the ground. While the overall bridge length with approaches is 284 metres, the length of the span across the Nepean River is 200 metres. This makes it the longest unsupported span for a shared path bridge in Australia. The triangulated steel Warren truss superstructure reflects the nearby historic steel railway bridges and is an unusual modern-day engineering solution. It has repetitive modules, enabling incremental construction, that are joined using welded articulating nodes. The truss colour is a deep ochre/ red brown depending on the light, making it part of the landscape, rather than standing out, and giving it a human quality. There is a generous, 4.6 metre wide deck with beautifully formed timber seating arranged along its length and marked out for pedestrian and cycle movement. On the north side of the deck are strategically placed cantilevered balconies from which to view the rowing and Victoria Bridge. A mountain view balcony and a river view terrace are placed on the south side. The lower part of the bridge balustrades is shaped with timbers, from sustainable sources, to represent the hull of a row boat, while the upper part uses steel cable to allow open river views and also reflect a maritime character. Feature lighting expresses the form of the bridge as a landmark along the river while helping to make the bridge safe to use at night. The minimal number of concrete piers are sculpturesque in quality.

Figure 6. View showing form of the bridge with sculpturesque piers, span, embankment and contrast with the old bridge in the distance.

Their curved forms make reference to the historic Victoria Bridge, provide an architectural contrast with the superstructure and serve to enhance its elegance. As well as supporting the span their shape is designed to minimize afflux. Bridge abutments are integrated into the slopes of the river bank on the Penrith side. The landscape design uses local quarried sandstone for stepped retaining walls that provide seating. Planting reinforces the indigenous plant communities of the area. The abutment areas incorporate water-sensitive design with swales and infiltration areas. To use a Glen Murcutt colloquialism, the bridge can be said to be a floating structure that “touches the earth lightly”, and this has indeed been a principle consciously applied by the designers. (Murcutt is an Australian Pritzker Prize winning architect).

Figure 7. View showing the cathedral-like form and sense of internal space experienced by users and the relationship of bridge to the line of Jacarandas that were preserved as part of the bridge identity.
Figure 8. Offset balconies allow a generous space for jogging, walking, cycling, viewing and socialising. Timber canopies, benches and lower balustrades give a warm character and sense of place. Views on both sides are panoramic.

 

Figure 9. This view of the bridge approach shows its careful design integration into the adjacent space leading to the river embankment and intensive use by the community both on and off the bridge.
Figure 10. Walkers on the deck showing triangulated cathedral-like superstructure and shade canopies.

The technical skills integrated into the design and building of the structure need to be celebrated: The truss was fabricated in modules by CIVMEC in the city of Newcastle in New South Wales, the massive loads (a total of 700 tonnes of steel) transported to a site on the eastern bank where the truss was assembled in sections, and incrementally launched by using a series of temporary piers in the water. The strict location and building tolerances to enable manufacturing in Newcastle and launching in Penrith had to be constantly overseen by the survey team throughout the project. The length of the span meant mass dampers had to be unobtrusively integrated into the project to avoid the bridge ‘bouncing’ under high pedestrian movement. The design is an innovation and landmark at many levels. While of its place, it creates a new built and natural landscape. Places and spaces are designed along its deck and embankments and, with its associated shared path network, embankment seating and play areas, it is a project for recreational pleasure and relaxation. The entirety of the Yandhai River Crossing is an infrastructure for our times and tomorrow, but with a link to the past.  It a human outcome, a thing of beauty experienced from many angles and viewpoints and a gift for its citizens. It is “regionalism” at its best – made for its area, from its materials and with a form derived from its context. Penrith however has a long way to go to realize its vision for the future and for the Yandhai bridge to therefore be fully integrated into a cohesive urban fabric.

Acknowledgements

Design direction by KI Studio and the Centre for Urban Design, Roads and Maritime Service, subsequently incorporated into Transport for New South Wales. Engineering, project management and construction by Roads and Maritime Services, BG&E Engineers and Seymore Whyte Civil Engineering Contractor. This project has won six awards, among others, the Landezine International Landscape Award for Infrastructure Projects, 2020 and the AILA (Australian Institute of Landscape Architects) Award for Landscape Architecture. KI Studio, the urban design company for the project, reviewed this article and provided the photographs for it. Contact Miguel Wustemann and Judy van Gelderen as follows:
mw@kistudio.com.au
jvg@kistudio.com.au

Notes & References

Dean, T. (2019). Nepean River Green Bridge (Yandhai River Crossing), Roads & Maritime Services, New South Wales: Proceedings of the 24th Association of Public Authority Surveyors Conference (APAS2019), Pokolbin, New South Wales, Australia, 1-3 April 2019. Troy.Dean@rms.nsw.gov.au RMS. (2019). Yandhai Nepean Crossing. http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/projects/sydney-west/nepean-river-bridge/index.html KI Studio, Entry, Infrastructure Projects. Yandhai Bridge, Landezine, 2019-2021, International Landscape Award. landezine-award.com/yandhai-bridge/

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