Vital Waiho River bridge reopens, reconnecting a recovering West Coast

Saturday, 13 April 2019

Vehicles can now use the newly rebuilt Waiho River bridge near Franz Josef after it reopened on Saturday.

West Coast businesses hit hard when the Waiho River bridge was washed away in a storm are hoping for a busy few weeks to end the tourist season now the road has been reopened.

The bridge at Franz Josef, a vital link for the tourism-dependant West Coast, reopened on Saturday after a frantic 18-day effort by contractors, the Defence Force and NZ Transport Agency staff to rebuild it.

Westland Mayor Bruce Smith said having the bridge down 'stopped us in our tracks', but its repair means the region will be 'back in business'.

**READ MORE:

Drone footage shows full extent of the damage to the Waiho Bridge, near Franz Josef on the West Coast, in March 2019.

* Franz Josef truck ferry shuts down after authorities warn of safety risk

* Waiho River bridge repairs delayed as more rain forecast for flood-damaged West Coast

* West Coast deluge nears Christchurch's annual rainfall, half of Auckland's**

Hospitality and accommodation businesses from Hokitika to Haast lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in cancelled bookings while the bridge was down, Smith said, hindering their cashflow.

Some estimates suggest the fall in visitor numbers could have cost the West Coast economy up to $3 million a day.

The bridge was washed away in a storm on March 26.

Anshul Dogra, general manager of The Landings restaurant in Franz Josef, said he could count the number of customers each day on his fingers while the bridge was closed, and that for three weeks his business had been paying more in wages than it had been bringing in.

The reopening left the restaurant full on Saturday, but Dogra said he was unsure of how busy it would be over the coming weeks, with Easter and the end of the school holidays heralding the start of winter and the quiet season.

The mayor was among an estimated 1000 people who turned out for the bridge's reinstatement on Saturday.

Following an 18-day rebuild the bridge has reopened, the road a vital artery for West Coast businesses.

'There are lots of people from all the way up and down Westland and there are smiles absolutely everywhere.'

However, there are no plans for the district council to look at measures to protect it from future flooding or to add more routes out of the town, Smith said.

'When you have a 100-year flood you've just got to accept the fact it's there and, if there's damage done, make sure that you can react as quickly as possible.'

The first car across the new bridge carried local man Tim Gibb, who set up a makeshift ferry service using a 38-tonne dump truck to take up to 35 cars and 100 passengers across the river each day.

He decided to shut down the service after police on Wednesday warned him about the safety risks of the operation.

Gibb said he had been the last across the bridge before it was washed away in front of him while he was checking stopbanks on the south side of the river for the Civil Defence.

He said it would have 'hurt the whole country' if the bridge had remained closed any longer, but with it rebuilt things were back to normal.

The new Bailey bridge – a steel structure that can be assembled quickly – was originally due to reopen on Friday but was pushed back after heavy rain raised the river level earlier in the week.

NZTA network manager Colin Hey said up to 50 people worked at the site when the riverbed was dry, though efforts were restricted when the river rose. Many more worked off-site to design and build the new bridge.