ABSTRACT
Steel box girder bridges are in use for l ong spans all over the world. They represent an economic solution for such structures, but must be properly conceived and carefully detailed if they are not to be a long-term maintenance burden for their owners. Ten years ago, the West Gate bridge in Melbourne (Figure 1) was substantially strengthened and upgraded to accom modate an extra traffic lane in each direction and to deal with a variety of problem s that had arisen since its construction in the 1970’s. This paper describes the background to the development of the steel box girder genre, and outlines som e of the strengthening, refurbishment and ongoing m aintenance work on the bridge. It also touches on som e lessons learnt from other similar major steel box girder bridge structures.
