Weather stalls work on Harbour Bridge

Bad weather has delayed crucial re-surfacing of four of the Auckland Harbour Bridge's eight lanes for the third time.

A frustrated Transit New Zealand fears it may not be able to start the more than $1 million project - which is already six months late - until after Labour Weekend.

This means it may be stretched to complete the work before Christmas, despite earlier hope that night-time closures would not disrupt traffic during the season.

Transit intends resealing all four centre lanes of the original bridge, and contractors will work only between 9pm and 5.30am.

All four lanes will have to close each night, as will the on-ramp from Curran St in St Marys Bay, confining traffic to the two clip-on lanes in each direction. Transit regional manager Richard Hancy said yesterday that the delays were unavoidable as his agency did not want to compromise the quality of work by taking risks with the weather.

Opus International works operations manager David Ashby said 21,000 sq m of asphaltic concrete (1500 tonnes) would be laid during the resurfacing, poured from mechanical pavers in a 25-30mm thick carpet.

The asphaltic concrete had to be heated to a temperature of between 160C and 180C when poured, and workers had to take care not to let any material slip into the harbour.

The lanes were last resurfaced in 1990. Mr Ashby said the new surface could be expected to last between seven and 10 years and perhaps longer, depending on traffic volumes and events such as accidents or spills.

The work was due to start at Easter, but bad weather and the onset of winter forced it to be put off until this month, when rain has again frustrated the contractors on two successive Sundays.

Mr Hancy said the contractors needed a firm indication of four days of clear weather to make a good start, and he now feared they would have to wait until October 30, the first Sunday after Labour Weekend.

He acknowledged that the work would have to be finished before a separate project to reseal the two northbound clip-on lanes could begin but said he was not about to start panicking.

"We will manage that. We are still a long way from Christmas," he said.

"We are not in panic mode.