The Harwood Bridge crosses the main channel of the Clarence River, about upstream from the river mouth, and by road from Grafton. It is located from the town of Maclean at the village of Harwood. It carried the Pacific Highway from the south bank of the Clarence River onto Harwood Island, from where the highway crosses the Serpentine Channel onto Chatsworth Island then finally crosses the North Channel of the Clarence River via the Mororo Bridge to the northern bank. The Harwood Bridge was completed in August 1966, and replaced the last ferry crossing on the state highway system of New South Wales. Prior to the opening of the bridge, the river crossing was provided by three cable-guided ferries operating in parallel. The bridge has a total length of, consisting of seven steel truss spans of length and twenty-seven steel girder approach spans. The deck carries two lanes of traffic and a footway. One of the steel truss spans is a vertical-lift span, which allows vessels to navigate the Clarence River. However, this now occurs infrequently. The Harwood Bridge formed part of a bypass of the town of Maclean and the village of Harwood. It is the longest, and last, in a series of steel truss bridges of a standard design built by the Department of Main Roads during the 1950s and 1960s, chiefly across the wide coastal rivers of New South Wales, and mostly on the Pacific Highway. Bridges of the same design were built on the Pacific Highway across the Hunter River at Hexham, the South Channel of the Hunter River at Mayfield, the Karuah River at Karuah, the Wollamba River as part of the Nabiac bypass, the Hastings River as part of the Port Macquarie bypass, and the Macleay River at Kempsey.
Replacement bridge
The Pacific Highway was upgraded between Grafton and Ballina. Work included a replacement four-lane concrete bridge, located to the east of the Harwood Bridge, spanning the Clarence River and its adjacent floodplain. The new bridge was constructed between 2016 and December 2019, and the existing bridge has been retained to provide access to Harwood Island. A grade-separatedpedestrian footpath and cycleway has been retained on the Harwood Bridge.
