| 59 T T Hugh de Lacy Bridges a key part of network recovery The replacement bridge will be a single-lane concrete structure 110 metres long, sitting on cast-in-situ concrete piles 10m deep, with bridge columns seven to nine metres above the river. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT NZTA - Marlborough Roads Recovery Repair works are under way on two Marlborough District Council (MDC) bridges as part of the Marlborough Roads Recovery programme following the storm events of July 2021 and August 2022. The bridges are being built under the supervision of the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) under a contract that’s the only one of its kind in the country. One of the new bridges is about 30km up the Waihopai Valley Road over the Waihopai River, replacing a temporary Bailey bridge installed by NZTA after the July 2021 floods to reconnect the upper Waihopai Valley with the Wairau Plains, a key forestry and farming route. The new bridge, upriver from the washedaway bridge and at a much higher elevation, will have a formal naming ceremony on its completion, though for contract purposes it’s presently referred to as Bridge 256. The NZTA Project Manager on the Marlborough Roads Recovery Programme, Andrew Adams, says the old bridge had become vulnerable to flooding because of the narrow floodway space beneath it. “It was a single-lane bridge that was much lower than the new bridge will be,” he says. The replacement bridge will be a single-lane concrete structure 110 metres long, sitting on cast-in-situ concrete piles 10m deep, with bridge columns seven to nine metres above the river. “The new bridge will be elevated compared to the old one, providing a massive increase in waterway space below the deck,” Andrew says. By late July the contractor, Nelson’s Egypt Ltd, had sunk five of the six steel caissons, concreted three of them and had formed two of the bridge columns. “Egypt got onto the site early this year after winning the contract last November, and they expect to have the bridge completed by Christmas,” he says. Bridge 256 is a design and construction contract with the design produced by a local company, Thelin Ltd, which has a lengthy record of bridge-building in the Top-of-the-South going back more than half a century, with over 400 completed bridges to its credit. Thelin is involved in more than just bridge-building, having provided the pre-cast concrete panels for the huge new manufacturing plant of the peanut butter company Pic’s, which was started up in a home garage in Nelson 10 years ago. The second Marlborough bridge that Andrew is overseeing to repair storm damage is known as Dalton’s Bridge on Kaiuma Bay Road, just off State Highway Six near Havelock. The riverbank, up and downstream of the ridge on its true left-hand side, suffered severe scouring and the abutment on that side was undermined, resulting in traffic restrictions until it’s repaired. The abutment reconstruction is currently under way, and is being carried out by Christchurch company RJ Civil. “This work started in late June and is expected to be finished in late August, early September,” Adam says. “After that there’s a contract to be let to build a 180m long wall of rock armour along the riverbank either side of the new abutment, to prevent further scouring.” Bridges / Concrete Structures RetainingWalls / Jetty Construction Servicing Nelson, Tasman, Golden Bay, West Coast, Marlborough, Otago PH: 027 527 6211 / jadenbarnett@gmail.com
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