21 February 2012
Bridge repairs are now complete and bridge is back in service.
25 January 2012
The bridge repair programme remains on-track and the bridge will be back in operation in February.
Bridge strengthening which includes welded steel reinforcing and lateral bracing to the main bridge beams (see gallery photos) are now well underway at Jensen Steel (subcontracted by HEB at Mt Maunganui). When completed, the full 33 metre span of the bridge will become a one piece unit.
Following the structural welding, the beams, hand-rail stanchions and balustrades will be repainted with a proprietary graffiti resistant paint system. The concrete deck slabs will also be cleaned.
When the bridge is finally reinstalled, it will look like it did when new in 1999.
There have been some concerns raised about cost to the ratepayer. Rates will not be increased as a consequence of this repair work. The reason is that Council maintains a “District Reserves Asset Renewal” project which is reviewed annually. In this case, bridge repair costs have simply been brought forward several years earlier than expected. A consequence of this is that other planned reserves asset renewals for the 2012/13 period will be rescheduled over the next few years based on a number of considerations such as condition and importance.
14 December 2011
The contract to repair the bridge was awarded Thursday 8 December to HEB Structures Ltd.
The repair work is being done in stages.
The first stage got underway the week before Christmas 2011 and involved removing the bridge by crane and taking it back to HEB’s facility at Mount Maunganui for strengthening, a repaint and minor refurbishment.
The bridge is expected to be back in operation in early February.
The repairs to the bridge will cost around $76,000. Of this approximately $22,000 was spent on removing the bridge by crane, disassembly and transportation to HEBs base at the Mount.
By way of background, removing the bridge for repairs was a cheaper option than trying to undertake repairs on site (erecting scaffolding across the stream). Its removal also mitigates any potential safety risk to the public during repairs.
While the bridge is being repaired the hand rails will be given a spruce up so when its put back it will effectively look like a new bridge, with the benefit of the required design loading being met.