Hikuai River Bridge, just south of Tairua.
Ongoing work at a single-lane bridge on State Highway 25 in the Coromandel has raised red flags with the community.
The maintenance work at the Hikuai River Bridge south of Tairua forced overnight closures over several nights last week but is yet to be completed.
The Tairua Residents and Ratepayers Association have now voiced their upset over the timeline of the works, as maintenance on the bridge had already been carried out between 2019 and 2022.
The association’s chairperson Jo Finnis said she was preparing to address concerns with NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA).
“I am going to write to NZTA about it; I don’t understand what is happening with the repairs; it is difficult to understand why it is taking so long.”
NZTA told the Hauraki-Coromandel Post the crews working on the bridge last week had “lost” one night to poor weather. The crews completed all but one portion of the work.
The work still to be completed involved applying waterproof coatings to parts of the bridge, which would require brief stop/go traffic controls this week.
Remedial work completed last week included digging out and replacing capping beams which are components that spanned the full width of the road at each end of the bridge.
Steel plates were placed over the excavations and a temporary speed restriction was put in place, allowing traffic to cross during the day.
NZTA said contractors carried out further maintenance during the closure, including resurfacing the eastern approach to the bridge and repairs to the bridge deck.
While the section of highway was closed between 8pm and 6am last week, affected road users had to detour via SH25 looping through Coromandel township in the north - a detour of up to 158 kilometres.
The recent works come after a 2019 report revealed that the bridge’s barrier and truss design did not comply with requirements for collision loads.
The report said the bridge’s timber deck surfacing was in a poor state and engineers advised NZTA against a “do nothing” option.
Barriers leading to the bridge, designed to protect the truss from wayward vehicles, also needed upgrades.
Following the report’s findings, work was undertaken between 2019 and 2022, with the timber deck replacement in October/November 2022 requiring a series of overnight closures across a period of 20 nights.
When asked about the recent works coming on the back of the previous maintenance, NZTA system manager for Waikato Andy Oakley said all critical work identified in a 2019 report had been carried out between 2019 and 2022 ahead of the full bridge deck replacement in late October/early November 2022.
“Last week’s work involved digging out and replacing abutment capping beams; this was to address a weakness identified during the 2022 works, meaning we had to finish the deck, then go away and design the new capping beams before returning to do the works.
“It was impractical to keep the worksite in place for the time needed; while we had only found some deterioration at one end of the bridge, we replaced both to maximise the closure and minimise disruption.
“We also took the opportunity to reseal the road on the eastern approach to the bridge and seal the edges of the plywood deck units.
“NZTA conducts regular inspections of all bridges on the state highway network to ensure they’re safe and fit for purpose; bridges such as the Hikuai require repairs and maintenance over time as they age.”