Macleay River railway bridge, Kempsey

The Macleay River railway bridge is a heritage-listed railway bridge on the North Coast railway crossing the Macleay River from Kempsey to South Kempsey, both in the Kempsey Shire, New South Wales, Australia. The property is owned by RailCorp, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

History
The bridge was built in 1917 along with the extension of the North Coast line to Kempsey. The steelwork for the bridge was made at the Walsh Island Dockyard and Engineering Works and transported to the bridge site by steamer.

The bridge was damaged in floods in 1949 and 1950. It was initially proposed to replace the entire bridge as a result, but this proposal had been abandoned by 1953.

In 1966 the bridge spans were raised by 1 metre due to the 1950s floods, with new pre-cast concrete approaches constructed.

Description
The bridge is a steel truss bridge with consisting of two 200 ft steel spans and two 66 ft plate girder spans. It was built with steel approaches, with the pre-cast concrete approaches added later when the bridge was raised.

Heritage listing
The Macleay River bridge is one of the major river crossings on the North Coast Railway. When opened in 1917, the crossing of the river was achieved by 3 x 200' steel truss spans, approached by timber trestles. After two floods in 1949 and in 1950, the steel trusses were raised about 1 metre and the approaches replaced by pre-stressed concrete spans.

Kempsey rail bridge over Macleay River was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria.

The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

This item is assessed as historically rare. This item is assessed as architecturally rare. This item is assessed as socially rare.