The iconic Melbourne's Westgate Bridge is a bridge that goes over the Yarra river and is a much needed link from Melbourne's West to the city and further.
The bridge has has its share of controversy, as workers died during it's construction in 1970.
What the general populous are NOT being told by the government and media, is it that again the bridge is in danger of collapsing.
The bridge has usually 5 lanes in either direction. Due to roadworks which are also done during peak-ish hours, the bridge is cut down to 3 lanes.
Works are also carried out on the bridge at night time out of the view of the public eye.
In the 70's the bridge was designed to carry a specified car weight and throughput.
Today's traffic is approximately 4 times of what the design limits are for the bridge.
From a time frame of 1990 to 2010, the average family car, in this example the much Australian beloved Commodore has ballooned in weight from 1360kg (2992 lbs) to 1810kg (3982 lbs) or 450kg (990 lbs).
The government through Vicroads (the government body that is in charge of road works in Victoria), forces the contractors / workers who are providing maintenance on the bridge to sign papers of confidentiality with respect to the works carried out on the bridge.
The government DOES NOT want this information to be in public hands.
The bridge is NOT designed to carry the load capacity that it does today.
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