East Cape bridge reopened

Pictures supplied

Awatere Bridge on East Cape Road has been fully repaired and reopened to all traffic almost a year after it was badly damaged during Cyclone Gabrielle. It was one of 10 bridges in the region that suffered significant structural issues that required immediate repairs to avoid the risk of loss in a further flood event.  

“One of the support piers that the bridge sits on suffered significant rotation,” a district council spokesman said. Since the temporary Bailey bridge was installed to span the damaged section, new piles have been drilled 18 metres into the riverbed.

“The whole bridge was jacked on to a temporary support with a new beam poured just before Christmas. The damaged pier has now been demolished and the temporary Bailey bridge was removed last week,” the spokesman said.

The fully repaired bridge reopened to all traffic last week.

“There’s still some minor works to finish and the project is due to be completed by mid-February. This has been a challenging project with significant effort put in by our team, including WSP and DS Project Solutions, staff and contractors CR Taylor and Downer NZ. At a project cost of $1.5 million, we’re proud to have kept access open during the majority of construction to support the community.