Auckland Harbour Bridge: Video shows permanent fix to damaged bridge underway

Wednesday, 30 September 2020

The harbour bridge strut is being manufactured in Whangārei and should be installed this weekend.

Engineers have been working “around the clock” to make sure the new 22.7 metre strut for the Auckland Harbour Bridge is ready for installation this weekend.

On September 18, the bridge was severely damaged when a freak gust of wind caused a truck to hit it.

Motorists have faced delays due to lane closures associated with the damage.

Engineers working on getting the strut ready for installation.

Last week, a temporary fix to the damaged strut meant three lanes could be open in each direction.

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The strut should be installed on Saturday night.

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Now, work is progressing to get the permanent fix installed on Saturday night.

The new strut is being manufactured in Northland’s Whangārei by Culham Engineering.

Managing director Rob Kirwan said progress was going well and his team had been “working around the clock” to get it completed.

Kirwan said it was a “legacy” for the apprentices that were involved in the project.

He said they had realised it was very important to Aucklanders and they were proud to be involved in such a “high profile job”.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said the strut had been coated and painted on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday would see the components bolted together before it was transported to Auckland on Saturday morning.

If good weather continues, it will be installed on Saturday night.

To allow the first stage of work to happen on Saturday, all southbound lanes of the bridge into the city centre will be closed overnight from 9pm on Saturday, and re-open mid-morning on Sunday.

The Esmonde and Onewa Rd southbound SH1 on-ramps will also be closed.

One southbound lane and one northbound lane over the bridge will also close from 5-9pm on Saturday to prepare the site for the overnight work.

NZTA General manager of transport services Brett Gliddon said the agency was giving Aucklanders plenty of warning that travel over the bridge into the city centre on Saturday night won’t be possible.

Gliddon said he understood this would cause inconvenience but lane closures were needed to allow engineers to carry out their work safely.

“If all goes well with the installation on Saturday night, further closures will be needed on other nights next week to carry out the all-important tensioning work.

“This involves jacking the new strut to the required level so that it is carrying load again, redistributing the load throughout the entire bridge structure. Only then can all the lanes be safely reopened.”