The Terania Street Rail Bridge demolition is underway in North Lismore.

Sam Agnew, the Bridge Works Manager for Northern Bridges Transport for NSW, explained the demolition process and the expected timeline for reopening the road.

"Any demolition of the structure starts with a structural assessment and a design assessment, so that we can work out what the existing condition of the bridge is. Then, we can work out how the safest way to pull it down is to make sure that we're keeping our workers and our people as safe as possible. In this particular instance, we're doing incremental dismantling from one end to the other so that the spans that aren't actively being demolished stay as stable as possible, so only the spans that we're actively bringing down on any given day are being worked on.

(Cutting the steel girders so the next section of the bridge can be demolished from the left)

"It's a top-down dismantling for this particular one, where we cut the rail line up into segments, we lift those off, and then we use the excavators to break through the girders and then finalise it with laying the pier over onto the ground. Once it's on the ground, we can work a lot more safely on it."

Sam said that so far, the demolition is going really well.

"Being only the second day, everything going well. We've got high hopes. We're looking like we're on track with our original advice. We think we should be open slightly earlier than we originally advised, but we've still got a lot to go. So, let's just see how the next few days progress."

The completion date was Friday, 18 October at the latest, so if the fine weather holds and good progress is made, there is hope of an early finish.

When asked about what will be done with the material once the bridge has been demolished, Sam said that, unfortunately, very little can be salvaged and reused.

"Unfortunately, because of the condition of the existing fabric, as well as the contaminants that are involved, we're not able to reuse any of it, but we will try and salvage as much of the more interesting artifacts that we can that have got a bit of heritage value to them."

The aim for today was to remove five spans of the rail bridge and finish the demolition on Thursday. From then, the road, pavement and abutment work begins.

"Once we've finished demolishing the actual structure, we have to do some pavement work, we need to stabilise the abutments, make sure that nothing is left in an unsafe condition, and then we'll redo the road through the area so that it's redone nicely, line marked, and we can be reopen to the public."

The condition of the rail bridge makes a mockery of the timing of the removal process. The piers were in such poor condition that the bridge was unsafe to even walk across, let alone have a train move along it. If trains were to come back to Lismore the rail bridge would have to be completely rebuilt.

The four steel rail girders were the main stabilising elements of the entire bridge when it was hit by trucks. It is easy to understand why the bridge was closed after each incident, but the question has to be asked why the Heritage Council of NSW has allowed it to remain over Terania Street, given its condition. You also have to ask what the condition is of the other four wooden bridges over Lismore roads.

Sam Agnew said they want to leave that part of Terania Street in good condition, so the road resurfacing will not be a patch job. It will make the job a little longer, but we will be left with a road that won't pothole badly due to stormy weather in twelve months. It should last 20 years.

Today was good news for Sharon Madden at the Liberty Service Station and Brad Baker at Pro Hunt Outfitters and Fuel. Their businesses are suffering as Terania Street is closed again; however, the light is well and truly at the end of the tunnel.