Thursday, October 26, 2017
THE strengthening work that’s currently going on under Waioeka Bridge in preparation for heavier, and increased loads using the Eastern Bay freight corridor. Photo Ross McCullough OB4011-1
Ross McCullough
WORKS occurring under the Waioeka and Matekerepu bridges are not related to vulnerability but are about strengthening to improve freight efficiencies, says the New Zealand Transport Agency.
Those making their way over Waioeka Bridge, the main bridge into Opotiki from State Highway 2, may have noticed braces on the bridge on the left-hand side of the road.
When Opotiki News inquired about these steel braces, NZTA said it was not about any vulnerability of the bridges either in the event of a sizeable earthquake or a rising river.
It was strengthening work designed to improve freight efficiency in the Eastern Bay.
NZTA Bay of Plenty transport systems manager Jack Hansby said the strengthening work would bring the two bridges in line with the Pekatahi Bridge and make them high productivity motor vehicle capable.
That is, suitable for vehicles weighing more than 40-tonne.
Mr Hansby said the strengthening of Waioeka and Matekerepu bridges involved placing post-tensioning tendons and strengthening plates to increase the capacity of the bridge beams in selected places.
The work was not expected to have any impact on road users.
He said once it was finished, heavier trucks would be able to travel from Edgecumbe to Opotiki.
In the Bay alone, Mr Hansby said 12 bridges were being strengthened for the increased vehicle loadings.
When the $5 million upgrade of the Pekatahi Bridge was announced in April last year, Opotiki Mayor John Forbes said there was a “very clear need for it” given the region’s valuable exports, highlighting manuka and kiwifruit as two, with 70 percent of the freight leaving Gisborne by road travelling through the route.
The transport agency said it had been investing in strengthening bridges across New Zealand to improve freight efficiencies as part of the high productivity motor vehicle investment programme.
Mr Hansby said the programme had delivered significant benefits to industry through reduced freight costs.
At the time it was said the Pekatahi bridge would be upgraded, it was also announced that other Eastern Bay bridges would be in line for upgrades too, that included Waioeka and Matekerepu Bridges on SH2 and Tarawera Bridge on SH30.