Maintenance work closes twin bridges

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Downer EDI Works staff (from left) Barry Hobson, Dave McHaffie, Colin Duffy operating the digger, and foreman Kerry Hanifin yesterday work on one of the two wooden bridges across the Waitaki River at Kurow as part of a regular maintenance programme. Photo by David Bruce.

Traffic on State Highway 82 is being disrupted for up to an hour as contractors carry out maintenance work on the 129-year-old twin bridges across the Waitaki River at Kurow.

Work on the bridges began yesterday.

The bridges are being closed between 7am and 7pm until this Friday so Downer EDI Works can carry out the work on them, but will be open to allow traffic through for 10 minutes on every hour.

Emergency vehicles will be allowed through at any time.

Decking is being replaced or stabilised and is part of regular maintenance, not unusual for a wooden bridge of their age.

While the New Zealand Transport Agency will continue to maintain the two single-lane bridges, it has plans to start replacing them with new twin-lane bridges, at an estimated cost of about $15 million, in 2012, and complete them by 2014 if funding is available.

A tender for construction of the new bridges, downstream from the existing structures (which will be demolished), is being prepared and is expected to be advertised within the next two months.