The New Zealand Transport Agency has smoothed the dip in the Ashburton River/Hakatere Bridge deck along SH1, enabling the bridge speed to go back to 50kph, its usual posted speed limit.

Since the recent flooding and damage to one pier, the dip in the deck required the speed to be reduced to 30kph, delaying traffic at peak periods.

The bridge now has 24/7 access for most vehicles and is open for over-dimension loads and the operating requirements for over-dimensions are as they were before the flood.

The traffic management on the bridge has been substantially removed. All the cones along the centreline have been removed along with other cones on the edgeline. The NZTA has installed electronic monitoring equipment to allow remote monitoring of the structure which will avoid more closures for manual monitoring.

As at Tuesday 22 June, overweight guidelines were being finalised and were to be updated direct to industry/freight partners.

Timeline for repair

NZTA is aiming to complete the bridge pier repair in the next two months.

“In the coming months we will be jacking the bridge to the right level at the damaged pier and fixing it at the right height,” says Jessica McFarlane, network manager, Waka Kotahi NZTA.

“We will leave the jacks in places so if we need to make any adjustments in future, they can be made easily.”

McFarlane thanks all bridge users for their patience over the past three weeks as this bridge investigation got underway and traffic management for everyone’s safety was put in place.