Specialists hired to repaint Hamilton's historic Victoria Bridge

The Victoria Street Bridge over the Waikato River in Hamilton. Photo / Tom Rowland

Specialists have been hired to spruce up one of Hamilton's oldest bridges,Victoria Bridge, with a full repaint.

The graceful steel-arched bridge on Anzac Parade, built over the Waikato River and opened in 1910, was last painted 26 years ago and in coming months will be painted and repaired.

Works starts next week to set up for the big job which is expected to be completed in the middle of the year. The work will be done dependent on weather.

Hamilton City Council announced today it had contracted specialist bridge painting company TBS Farnsworth.

Additional minor maintenance work will also be done at the same time, the council said.

Work will mostly take place under the bridge, with scaffolding and a textile wrap installed to allow access to clean and repaint, and to contain any material to prevent it from reaching the river.

Also, a water management plan is in place to ensure the efficient use of water to clean the bridge.

If the city's Water Alert Level moves beyond Level 2, water use will be reviewed, the council said.

Partial and short term closures of some footpaths and river paths may be required during set-up, and there may be a short period of traffic management on Grantham Street during scaffolding set-up.

There is not expected to be any disruption to traffic across the Anzac Parade bridge.

The council said it had been working with Heritage NZ around the listed historic bridge, which is required to be repainted in the same grey colour.

Victoria Bridge is one of the city's six road bridges. It replaced an old timber bridge.

It was fabricated by the Cleveland Bridge Company in the United Kingdom and shipped to New Zealand for erection.

The company went on to construct many famous bridges throughout the world, including the original Auckland Harbour Bridge.