Milestone moment for the Bridgewater Bridge with the final piece now in place

The $786m project has reached a major milestone on Thursday, as the final piece was slotted into place. Check out the photos >>

The final piece of the Bridgewater Bridge construction put in place on February 27. Picture: Supplied

The final piece of the new Bridgewater Bridge deck has been slotted into place.

Marking one of the last major milestones in the construction phase of the $786m project, state and federal MPs toured the site on Thursday afternoon.

When federal Labor was in opposition, Labor member for Lyons Brian Mitchell famously offered to eat his hat if the new bridge was open by the end of 2024, as originally promised.

As one of his last acts as a government MP, he welcomed the progress made on the site.

“This is a bridge that’s been talked about for decades, and it’s come together now under the Albanese Labor government and under the Liberal state government here in Tasmania,” Mr Mitchell said.

“As a federal member, the outgoing federal member, it’s just terrific that this will be a sort of a swan song for me to see this very important project come to life.

“It didn’t quite make the end of 2024 so my hat is safe. People will know the history of that, but I’m proud as punch to see this very important project come to fruition.

“This is going to mean a big difference not just for commuters but very importantly for freight traffic.

“This cuts down the time it takes to get freight through the state, and that means dollar savings, and that’s very important for our economy.”

State Minister for Infrastructure Kerry Vincent said the bridge would be open to traffic in the second half of the year.

“We’ve got two to three months of solid work to the go to get everything on place up on top: fill the gaps, get everything in place, the signage in place, the black stuff on the road, so we’ve got something smooth to drive over then it’ll be open,” he said.

Project director Ben Maloney said the final segment was the last of 1082 to be placed on the bridge.

“They’ve all gone together over the course of the last year and a bit, it’s been a huge exercise on behalf of the contractor to install it through all various weather conditions,” he said.

“Now that we’ve seen that in place, we have about two or three more months worth of solid work to get the traffic on the bridge.

“And that’s our next major milestone, and we won’t be taking our foot off the accelerator to be achieving that as quickly as we can.”