The Transport Agency says motorist should plan for minor delays at the SH8 Clutha River Alexandra Bridge from Wednesday 10 June, so critical welding of new steel strengthening beams below the bridge can be finished.
The Alexandra Bridge in Clutha on State Highway 8.
Short delays will be in place for up to three weeks from Wednesday 10 June between 9am to midday, then again from 1.00pm to 4.00 pm, from Monday to Friday.
Strengthening work worth $770,000 on the bridge started in March. It involves fixing additional steel plates to increase the depth and thickness of 21 beams that take the load from the lighter bridge deck members.
This job is part of a $1.6m worth of bridge strengthening programme being carried on the highway between Alexandra and Queenstown. Other bridges involved are the Roaring Meg Bridge, Gentle Annie Bridges and Kawarau River (Bungy Bridge), on SH6 between Cromwell and Queenstown. The total cost of the work on these three bridges is $840,000.
Once this work is done by the end of June, the highway between Alexandra and Queenstown will be capable of handling (HPMV) High Productivity Motor Vehicles, with loads capped anywhere between 45 tonnes and 61 tonnes.
Steam cleaning will also be carried out at night for about a week from Wednesday 10 June, to clean-up some of the worst areas under the Alexandra bridge affected by pigeon excrement. This work isn’t expected to cause any disruptions to the operation of the bridge.
