Inland Rail makes progress on key bridge in Illabo to Stockinbingal section
Inland Rail has reached a significant milestone on the Illabo to Stockinbingal section of the project with the successful installation of the girders for the Dirnaseer Road bridge in Junee.
October 21, 2026
During the girder lift, carried out by our Illabo to Stockinbingal construction partner John Holland, four girders were lifted into place by a 350-tonne mobile crane, with two girders 19 metres long and another two 28 metres long.
The girders, weighing up to 56 tonnes, were fabricated in Newcastle, New South Wales, and transported to the Dirnaseer Road worksite by road.
The Dirnaseer Road bridge is a 47 metre, two-span, rail over road bridge that will allow double-stacked trains to pass over cars using the road underneath and will also feature a reinforced concrete box culvert (RCBC) livestock underpass, to allow livestock to safely cross the rail line.
Following the successful installation of the girders on the bridge, the next planned works will be the installation of the deck slab. The bridge is expected to be completed in the first half of next year.
The Illabo to Stockinbingal section involves constructing 39km of new rail track in the Junee and Cootamundra regions of New South Wales.
This new section of rail corridor will provide a direct route from Illabo to Stockinbingal through the existing Forbes line, bypassing Cootamundra and the steep and winding Bethungra Range with its Bethungra Spiral.
Inland Rail Chief Executive Sean Sweeney said:
“We are delighted with the successful installation of the girders for the Dirnaseer Road bridge in Junee, this is a very important milestone for the Illabo to Stockinbingal project.
“We would like to thank the local community for their ongoing patience while these important works are carried out.”
