One of the biggest crane lifts in New Zealand for new bridge north of Wairoa

The new Te Reinga Bridge being assembled beside the Wairoa River, where the 90m, 18m-high span will be lifted into place on Thursday. Photo / QRS

One of the biggest single crane lifts in New Zealand is set to go ahead when a new Te Reinga bridge is lowered into place north of Wairoa on Thursday.

The lifting and placement of the 90-metre bridge, arched to 18m at its highest and similar to an arched bridge on State Highway 1’s East Taupō Arterial, is expected to take no more than an hour.

Although the new, single-lane access won’t be in use until February.

The lift is the first job for a new Liebherr LR11000 Crawler Crane imported from South Korea by Christchurch-based Smith Crane and Construction.

It was bought for two windfarm projects in Northland and Taranaki, landed at the Port of Tauranga about a month ago and was transported in more than 50 truckloads last week to the bridge site on Ruakituri Rd, off Tiniroto Rd.

It will leave just as quickly, heading by the end of next week to the Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm project near Dargaville.

Crane company owner Tim Smith said a job such as the bridge replacement would normally have involved two cranes, one on either side of the river.

However, the site and access would have made it difficult to locate a crane on the western side.

“It will be one of the biggest lifts in New Zealand, I would think,” he said.

The road is closed from 8am to 6pm each day this week, extended to 6am to 8pm on Thursday when the bridge, constructed at the site by Napier company Eastbridge, will be lifted to an elevation of 70m.

It will be swivelled into place, straddling the Wairoa River without any piers.

By the time the bridge is open, it will end four years of disruption for the communities of Te Reinga, Ruakituri, Ohuka and Erepeti since the old bridge, built in the 1930s, was badly damaged in flooding in March 2022.

Reopened to foot access and light vehicles (up to 3.5 tonnes), excluding heavier farm vehicles and trucks which had to take a circuitous detour, it was closed after a pier washed out in Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023.

The broken bridge was removed and a temporary “Bailey” bridge opened in February 2024, with a 10kmh speed limit and a maximum vehicle weight of 44 tonnes.

Farmer Nukuhia Hadfield says the replacement is “the light at the end of the tunnel” for an important area of farming productivity in the Wairoa district.

But it’s a light she wondered if she would ever see.

“With the amount of damage that was done and as widespread as it was, things had had to be prioritised,” she said.

“Were we going to be put at the bottom?

Locals will be heading down to watch the lift from a viewing platform on the western side of the river.

“It will be a sight to behold,” she said.

The $14 million contract is headed by Wairoa District Council-owned Quality Roading and Services, with Mayor Craig Little saying it’s an “exciting” time for the area and the company.

QRS contract manager Mike Wilson, who has been involved with the Te Reinga bridge issues since the 2022 flooding, described Thursday’s lift as “huge,” “amazing” and “right up there”.

Doug Laing is a Hawke’s Bay Today reporter based in Napier. He has been a reporter for more than 50 years, most of it in Hawke’s Bay,