{"id":495532,"date":"2026-01-06T03:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/495532\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T03:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:07:18","slug":"future-of-historic-paringa-bridge-uncertain-as-it-nears-100-year-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/495532\/","title":{"rendered":"Future of historic Paringa Bridge uncertain as it nears 100-year anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concern for the future of river and road traffic is mounting along a stretch of the Murray River as a historic bridge undergoes its second round of repairs within an 18-month period.<\/p>\n

The 99-year-old Paringa Bridge is located in South Australia’s Riverland and forms part of the Sturt Highway, which connects travellers from Adelaide to Sydney.<\/p>\n

The bridge was built in 1927 and was considered an engineering marvel at the time, as it was designed to rise in the middle to allow paddle-steamers and other large river vessels to pass underneath.<\/p>\n

This function largely continued until December 27, 2025, when the lift stopped, coinciding with the region’s peak summer tourist season.<\/p>\n

The South Australian Department for Infrastructure (DIT) said a faulty gearbox output shaft was to blame for the issue, and it would be conducting a full structural assessment on the entire bridge on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

It is the only vertical-lift bridge in South Australia. (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

Houseboat operator Rob Hughes said it meant some families, who booked multiple boats 12 months in advance, were separated for the Christmas and New Year period.<\/p>\n

“We have boats on either side of the bridge, so we are not quite sure how to handle [those bookings],” he said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Houseboats located next to Lock 5 are unable to travel to Renmark due to the malfunction. (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

“It’s our busiest time of the year, and we do more than 40 per cent of our yearly turnover just in December and January.<\/p>\n

“It’s the equivalent of our harvest for the year.”<\/p>\n

Mr Hughes said while he understands things can break or malfunction, he was in the same predicament in July 2024.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rob Hughes said three local houseboat operators have been impacted by the malfunction. (ABC News: Will Hunter)<\/p>\n

“[The bridge] was out for three weeks; now, 18 months later, in the busiest week of the year, it’s happened again, and there’s still nothing in place to resolve it when things break,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I would like to ask the department if it was the other way around and the bridge was stuck up [blocking road users], would it take three weeks?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"paringa<\/p>\n

When operating, the bridge vertically lifts twice a day to allow bigger vessels to travel through. (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

‘At the end of its life’<\/p>\n

Renmark Paringa Community Museum is located next to the bridge, and its chair, Wayne Howell, estimated more than 1,000 heavy vehicles use the bridge each day.<\/p>\n

He said a new bridge was inevitable.<\/p>\n

“In my 25 years of living locally, we’ve gone from single semis [truck and trailers] to doubles to triples, so the actual volume of traffic in weight is a lot more, ” he said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Wayne Howell says he is not opposed to a new bridge site to be located where the museum currently stands. (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

“I believe the bridge is getting to the end of its life, and it should be looked at now, rather than waiting until the thing falls apart.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Howell believed a new bridge built next to the existing structure would keep the historical value of the Paringa Bridge alive and the economy of the local townships too.<\/p>\n

\"cars<\/p>\n

Wayne Howell says if the current bridge lift was removed and a new structure was built, houseboat travel would be guaranteed.\u00a0 (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

Member for Barker Tony Pasin proposed a new structure be built at Spring Cart Gully<\/a>, near the town of Lyrup, in 2019, to provide an alternate river crossing.<\/p>\n

Six years later, Mr Pasin still backs the idea and said “bold thinking and decision making” is needed by policymakers.<\/p>\n

“It was blue sky thinking in 2019, and it is still now, but I think it’s something that would be significantly productive for the whole nation,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tony Pasin says a bridge at Spring Cart Gully would deliver a “significant productivity benefit” to the road network. (ABC South East SA: Eugene Boisvert)<\/p>\n

“The Paringa Bridge has served us well, but it’s the tightest bottleneck on the Sturt Highway \u2026 and it’s the only stretch of road where motorists have to travel 30 kilometres an hour.<\/p>\n

“This is something our nation will do at some point. I just hope it’s in my lifetime.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Counting current and future costs<\/p>\n

DIT chief executive Jon Whelan said in the past four years, it had spent about $700,000 on repairs.<\/p>\n

He estimated the current gearbox issue would cost more than $80,000 to fix.<\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

Jon Whelan says traffic restrictions will be in place when the gearbox is reinstalled.\u00a0 (ABC Riverland: Amelia Walters)<\/p>\n

“I’ve sent our structural engineers out there today to inspect [the bridge] \u2026 and have asked for a thorough, detailed assessment,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We want to continue to keep this operating into the future as we know how important it is to the Riverland and to houseboat operators.”<\/p>\n

Mr Whelan said the repaired gearbox is set to be reinstalled on Saturday, depending on weather conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concern for the future of river and road traffic is mounting along a stretch of the Murray River…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":495533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[75539,4740,37173,1131,10142,222930,125550,222931,222937,50,222928,222935,8743,214851,222933,66389,222932,222936,222929,149922,222934],"class_list":{"0":"post-495532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-100-years-old","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bridge","11":"tag-broken","12":"tag-centenary","13":"tag-department-for-infrastructure-and-transport","14":"tag-gearbox","15":"tag-jon-whelan","16":"tag-lyrup","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-paringa-bridge","19":"tag-renmark-paringa-community-museum","20":"tag-river","21":"tag-river-murray","22":"tag-river-murray-houseboats","23":"tag-riverland","24":"tag-rob-hughes","25":"tag-spring-cart-gully","26":"tag-sturt-highway","27":"tag-tony-pasin","28":"tag-wayne-howell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115845952129665814","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}