Auckland Harbor Bridge repairs are scheduled for Saturday night

Thrill North Shore Travelers – The Harbor Bridge is much closer to a permanent solution.

However, motorists and bus passengers will first have to endure at least one more night of lane closures.

This is because work crews at the Waka Kotahi NZ Transportation Agency plan, weather permitting, to close the southbound lanes of the bridge tomorrow night to install a new metal support strut.

If the operation is successful, it could mean that the bridge will be fully open within a week, although the NZTA said a definite deadline has yet to be confirmed.

The repairs will be hailed by travelers after weeks of outages.

It comes after a strange 127 km / h gust of wind on Friday, September 18, struck a truck against a metal support strut, damaging the bridge and forcing engineers to close four of its eight lanes.

Strong winds also tipped another truck onto its side.

Four of the eight lanes of the bridge were closed, bringing chaos to the city’s road network that night, as it took motorists hours to get home.

A second gust of strong winds that hit the port of Waitematā at almost 100 km / h caused further delays for motorists last Tuesday when authorities temporarily closed the bridge.

NZTA Transportation Services General Manager Brett Gliddon said the forecast was for good weather tomorrow night, but if the weather was not right, the repairs would not continue.

“On Saturday night, engineers plan to replace the temporary strut, which was installed last week,” he said.

“The permanent strut will be 22.7 meters long and will run from the bridge to the deck of the bridge. It has been made from New Zealand-made steel at Whangārei as a replacement like for like.”

Gliddon said that once the new strut was in place, engineers would still need to “lift the deck off the bridge” so that the new strut could be connected for load bearing.

“This is by far the most complex part of the process because the bridge must be constantly monitored to see how it responds to the new weight distribution,” he said.

“This readjustment will take place on another night (to be confirmed) which will involve the closure of the southbound lanes over the harbor bridge from 9:00 pm to 5:00 am If there is bad weather or strong winds, the bridge work and the closing to the south will happen on the first good night available.

“We are confident that we have not left anything to chance, checking and rechecking the weight bearing calculations and then having our detailed plan reviewed by overseas bridge experts. However, there is still a lot that needs to go. well into the night. “

To complete repairs tomorrow night, work crews will close the four center lanes on the bridge starting at 5 p.m. to allow the temporary strut to be removed.

The two outer southbound lanes will be closed from 9 p.m. to mid-morning Sunday.

“That means there will be no southbound lanes open on the bridge. The southbound freeway on the ramps at Esmonde Rd and Onewa Rd will also close starting at 8:30 pm,” NZTA said.

The outer two lanes of the northbound bridge will remain open.

Southbound motorists are advised to use the western ring route on SH16 and SH18.

Auckland Transport buses from the North Shore to the city will stop at Akoranga bus station starting at 8.15pm, then a shuttle will take passengers to and from the Birkenhead ferry dock.

Buses from the city to the North Shore will continue to operate, but with reduced service.

Additional ferry services will also be offered.

Ferries from Birkenhead to the city center will operate on a standard schedule on Saturday before additional cruises start departing every 30 minutes from 8.45pm.

Additional ferries heading in the opposite direction will start every 30 minutes from 8.30 pm to midnight.

On Sunday morning, ferries from Birkenhead to the city center will depart every 30 minutes from 6.30am to 9.35am when they return to standard time.

Those heading in the opposite direction will depart every 30 minutes from 6.15 until 9.10 before returning to standard time.