Auckland Harbour Bridge lanes leading into the city will be closed overnight to allow for repair work, Waka Kotahi NZTA has confirmed.
The truck seen rolled on its side on Friday. Photo: NZTA
A load-bearing truss, weighing about four tonnes, was damaged on Friday when a truck crashed into it after being hit by 127km/h wind gusts, forcing the closure of four of the bridge's eight lanes.
That has left motorists enduring long morning commutes.
The two southbound lanes that had been operating will be closed from 9pm tonight to 5am on Wednesday so crews can carry out temporary repairs to the damaged strut. Northbound traffic will have two lanes open.
Overnight roadworks on Auckland's motorway network tonight include closure of all southbound lanes on the AKL HBR Bridge from 9pm to 5am. Two northbound lanes remain open. Please use #WRR (SH18/16/20) for southbound journeys tonight: https://t.co/jeEInHFZjc ^TP pic.twitter.com/mqcIkCtghz
— Waka Kotahi NZTA Auckland & Northland (@WakaKotahiAkNth) September 22, 2020
The repair involves removing the lower half of the 22.7 metre truss and replacing it with a freshly fabricated section of steel.
If work is not completed overnight it will continue tomorrow night.
"This is a complex undertaking and has never been done before so the bridge team must do extensive testing on the bridge before opening it up to live traffic," the agency's manager of transport services Brett Gliddon said.
Worker taking photos of the damaged strut. Photo: Eli Orzessek / RNZ
"This includes mathematical peer review by independent experts which we are doing in parallel to the construction of the temporary piece."
"Once the temporary fix is in place there will be real life testing with heavy vehicles to ensure it performs to the design specifications and requirements. Only then will a final decision be made about whether the temporary fix is suitable to allow the re-opening of additional lanes."
"Once that decision has been made, it is expected that two lanes on the centre-span of the bridge could open to traffic."
When the repairs are finished one extra lane in each direction can be opened.
Gliddon said work was also continuing at pace on a permanent repair of the damaged truss in order to re-open all lanes, but this was weeks away from installation.
