Napier St rail bridge to close overnight for upgrade works

MELBOURNE’S most notorious railway underpass will be closed to traffic this week to complete long-awaited upgrade works.

Napier St underpass will be closed for works, so hopefully this doesn’t happen again. Picture: David Smith

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MELBOURNE most struck railbridge underpass will be closed to truck traffic overnight to allow long-awaited protection beams to be replaced.

The Napier St underpass in Footscray will be closed to all vehicles between 8pm tonight until 6am tomorrow morning. It will also close between 8pm on Tuesday and reopen at 6am on Wednesday.

Vicroads Metro North West operations director Brian Westley said “unfavourable” weather conditions in the past 24 hours had prevented the works from starting as scheduled on Sunday.

Mr Westley said trucks would be banned from using the underpass during the installation but cars could access the underpass between 6am and 8pm.

“The underpass remains open for cars, small trucks, pedestrians and cyclists,” he said.

“To ensure public safety during the works, there are traffic controllers on-site to direct drivers of large trucks to use the alternate routes in place,” Mr Westley said.

He said the works were scheduled to be completed by Wednesday morning.

The 4m-high bridge in Footscray gets hit by more heavy vehicles than any other in Melbourne, with more than 60 since 2010.