Auckland Harbour Bridge: New strut to be installed this weekend, ahead of schedule

Tuesday, 29 September 2020

Aucklanders have faced lengthy traffic delays for weeks after a truck rolled on the harbour bridge, damaging a strut and closing lanes.

The first step in permanently fixing the Auckland Harbour Bridge could come this weekend, if the weather holds up.

New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi transport services general manager Brett Gliddon said, all going to plan, the new 22.7 metre strut that will be a permanent load-bearing fix for the bridge will be installed overnight this Saturday, ahead of schedule.

Timelapse video shows temporary repairs on Auckland Harbour Bridge.

Gliddon said while this was “great news for Aucklanders”, it was just the first step in a “multi-staged process” to repair the bridge, with several key checks and “hurdles” yet to be completed.

“That means a timeframe for fully re-opening all eight lanes on the bridge is still not known,” he said.

**READ MORE:

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* Auckland Harbour Bridge: Permanent fix expected in four to five weeks, NZTA says

The bridge was damaged after 127kmh winds caused a truck to crash into a load-bearing steel beam earlier in the month, rendering the middle lanes unusable.

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.

Congestion is expected on the northern motorway (SH1) so people need to plan ahead and use the Western Ring Route as an alternative to SH1 and the bridge, he said.

If the weather is unsettled this weekend, the installation and southbound closure will take place on the next available fine night, Gliddon said.

The second and most challenging stage of work would happen off-site, and involve in-depth calculations to confirm what’s required to put tension back into the bridge.

This “complex” procedure would require another overnight closure, he said.

Gliddon said Waka Kotahi knew the lane closures on the bridge were causing “frustration”, and said it was working as hard as it can to reopen the bridge as soon as possible.

“While we’ve made faster than expected progress so far we still have very important steps to complete and we will not be opening the bridge to all traffic until we are confident it is safe to do so.”

Wind speeds on the bridge have now reduced from earlier on Tuesday when gusts reached 98kmh, closing all lanes over the harbour bridge for just over an hour.