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Permanent repairs to Auckland’s Harbor Bridge are expected to begin this weekend, closing all southbound lanes in the city overnight on Saturday.
Auckland Harbor Bridge.
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Waka Kotahi, the transportation agency, said everything is going according to plan, a new 22.7-meter strut will be installed on Saturday night.
Its general manager for transportation services, Brett Gliddon, said it is the first stage of the bridge’s permanent repair and will involve bridge engineers removing the temporary bridge strut and replacing it with the new permanent strut.
“This is great news for the locals of Auckland, but it is only the first step in a multi-stage process to repair the Auckland Harbor Bridge, with several key verifications and obstacles to be completed.”
He said there is no deadline yet to reopen the bridge’s eight lanes.
The agency will close all southbound lanes of the Auckland Harbor Bridge into the city from 9pm Saturday to mid-morning Sunday, from Takapuna’s Esmonde Road.
One lane in either direction over the bridge will also close from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Saturday to prepare the site.
Waka Kotahi advises people to follow the marked detour routes and allow additional travel time from the North Shore to the city center.
Gliddon said the second and more challenging stage of the work will occur off-site and involves in-depth calculations to confirm what is required to put stress back on the bridge.
“Engineers must restore the load capacity of the bridge, which will mean that it is raised to the required level so that the stress can be redistributed throughout the structure and allow all lanes to reopen with the new bridge strut in place. The process is another complex procedure that will require another nightly shutdown, “he said.
“We are very happy with the progress to get to this point, we know that the lane closures on the port bridge are causing frustration and we are working as hard as we can to reopen the bridge as soon as possible.”
He said that the team had advanced faster than expected so far.
Wind speeds on the bridge have now slowed since today, when the gusts reached 98 km / h, closing all lanes on the harbor bridge for just over an hour.
Ongoing wind gusts have been a concern since the weekend and the Waka Kotahi Bridge team has been continuously measuring wind levels.
It is vital that we protect this critical piece of infrastructure in the medium and long term. If another incident occurred due to high winds, the bridge could be further damaged, causing a long-term disruption.
The bridge and clip-on rails are safe to use, however, since the superstructure was damaged due to high winds on September 18, the bridge will remain compromised until permanent repair can be made.
The double-decker buses make about 330 round trips across the bridge every day, but had to take a detour for a short time this morning due to strong gusts.
Auckland Transport said its double-decker buses do not cross the bridge when gusts exceeding 100 km / h are forecast.
He said that tilt tests have shown that Auckland’s double-decker vehicles can withstand crosswinds of at least 130km / h.
