Harbour Bridge maintenance blitz launched after painting work fell behind

Work will be significantly ramped up to keep the Sydney Harbour Bridge in good working order.

A Harbour Bridge maintenance blitz will be launched to spruce up the Coathanger after work to keep the Sydney icon in good nick “dropped off the radar”.

The eight-year painting plan has been launched to tackle parts of the bridge that are becoming increasingly rusty, to ensure that it stays in working order.

While the bridge is being painted constantly, Transport officials were worried that staff were falling behind.

Twelve additional full-time painters will be hired, and yearly painting targets will increase by 30 per cent.

The blitz comes after workers fell behind on painting the bridge during the Covid pandemic.

By 2038, a third of the surface of the bridge will be repainted, and surface rust will be treated.

Eight per cent of the lateral cross-bracing beams are impacted by rust. Picture: supplied.

Surface rust needs to be treated before it becomes structural. Picture: supplied.

Painting the bridge in its entirety takes 30 years.

Crucial work to keep the bridge looking, and operating, at its best had “dropped off the radar” in recent years, a Transport official said.

The increased work is designed to ensure surface rust does not turn into a structural problem: currently, 2.5 per cent of the bridge is impacted by rust.

Twelve additional full-time painters will be hired. Picture: Supplied

However, the lateral cross-bracing beams are far worse. Eight per cent of those beams, some of the hardest to reach, are rusty.

Without putting in place a long-term maintenance plan, officials “would have had concerns” about the bridge “meeting all its performance targets,” the official said.

“I was not satisfied that the current maintenance plan would deliver that in time for 2032 and beyond and today we outline a much more intensive program for the treatment of rust and painting,” Roads Minister John Graham said.

“The Bridge remains the city’s most critical road and rail corridor, but it is also a priceless tourism asset which makes this work that much more critical,” he said.