| 43 T T Hugh de Lacy Locals welcome new, two-lane bridge The old cast-iron bridge awaited replacement for decades. CONTRACTING HEB Construction With the one-time threat of disappearing under another hydro lake now far behind it, the village of Beaumont in Otago is celebrating the completion of the handsome new two-lane bridge replacing the old single-lane one across the Clutha River. Built by HEB Construction, the project was delivered by Waka Kotahi, the NZ Transport Agency, on behalf of the Government to get people where they need to go safely and efficiently. The old cast-iron bridge awaited replacement for decades as the authorities hummed and hahed over whether to build another dam down-river from Beaumont that would have drowned the town under a 2000-ha lake stretching up from the Tuapeka river mouth. Eventually, the new dam idea was scrapped, and HEB won the $25 million contract for the replacement bridge, which opened in July last year under traffic speed restrictions. These were lifted in December when the final sealing and lane-marking on the project was completed. The locals are delighted, not just with the new bridge, but also with the retention of the 136-year-old old one alongside it to enjoy a new lease of life as part of the Clutha Gold Trail bicycle path bringing new and repeat tourist traffic to the village. HEB Structures Engineer Todd Wilkins said the bridge has won plaudits from the locals for its landscaped appearance no less than for its practicality. “The bridge itself features Maori patterns in the abutment concrete on the upstream side, reflecting eels and kowhai trees, and they certainly make for a handsome structure,” Todd says. “It’s been clear for a long time that the old bridge was no longer up to the job, given the heavy agricultural and mining traffic that needed to use it, but it was a while before the decision was made to replace it.” The new bridge is 195 metres long and of steel girder construction with its own twometre-wide shared cycle and pedestrian lane. “It was fairly challenging to build because the four 2.2m diameter piles had to be sunk to between nine and 14m into the bed-rock, while the abutments required holes between five and six metres deep. “Adding to the complications was the regular rise and fall of the water level in the Clutha as a result of the changing demands of water-flows over the Roxburgh dam upstream. This meant that as electricity demand rose rapidly between 6am and 7am it would take until just 10am for the river to reach its peak at Beaumont, which left us with just a two- or three-hour working window for anything close to the river,” Todd says. Caught in the rapid price escalation that followed the Covid pandemic, the final cost of the bridge came in at $7m over the contract price because of supply chain delays, further delays in the supply and price of steel, and the drilling of the pile holes into the rock proving unexpectedly challenging. Also loading the price was the laying of an asphaltic surface to minimise the risk of vehicles skidding in the ice-prone location. • Drainage Holes • Ground Water Monitoring Holes • Core Samples • Domestic Water Bores • All Terrain Drilling Solutions Grant Bortherston Director (m) 021 543 816 (t) 03 230 4189 | (e) grant@helidrill.com | www.helidrill.com Of ce & Postal Address: 304 Drysdale Road, RD2, Invercargill, 9872 We can arrange and carry out all or part of your traf c management requirements, from a basic shoulder closure on a level one road, to lane closures with manual traf c controls on state highways. Road Safety Specialists Equipment Sales andHire Taane Royce | 021 720 162 www.tmsco.co.nz
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