SH73 Arthur’s Pass route linking Canterbury and the West Coast aiming to open 6pm tonight

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Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency crews with diggers have been busy backfilling a hole discovered under SH73 at Craigieburn Cutting earlier today.

The highway was closed before 2pm and is expected to reopen by 6pm tonight, says Waka Kotahi Maintenance Contract Manager Steve Rusbatch.

“Thankfully the crews with the right machinery were all at hand because of the ongoing work to repair the culvert damaged by the mid-winter storms,” he says.

Waka Kotahi thanks all road users for their patience if their trips were disrupted or diverted this afternoon onto the Lewis Pass alternate alpine route.

Yellow digger removing soil around broken culvert

Work underway late this afternoon to fill in the hole caused by a broken culvert under the highway. SH73 should be ready to reopen to a single lane tonight around 6pm.

Yellow earthworks machine compacting road over repaired culvert

The Craigieburn hole almost fully compacted and ready to take traffic again.

The Craigieburn Cutting is north of Castle Hill and south of Lake Pearson.

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