The deck of the Sutton suspension bridge, badly damaged in July floods, before it is dragged away from the river by diggers and as the work is done.
The 19th-century bridge over the Taieri River in Sutton-Mount Ross Rd was undergoing strengthening work and had only recently reopened to heavy trucks when the floods occurred.
Council transport delivery manager Josh von Pein said contractors were in the final stage of salvaging the bridge.
Four stone columns that helped hold the bridge up had been removed, numbered and stored, and steel cables had also been salvaged.
Heritage New Zealand had been on site to oversee the work.
Yesterday a bulldozer and two diggers had pulled one half of the collapsed bridge deck out of the water, and today the other half would be removed.
A report on the state of the bridge, the reason it failed and whether in can be rebuilt, was expected to be available in November.
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I was passenger in a car that the idiot driver crashed on that bridge one really frosty night in the 80's. I have some very vivid images of it. We were unbelievably lucky to survive and indeed walked away with only bruises and a few scratches. In response to my asking him to slow down the driver had sped up and completely messed it up.
I have mixed feelings about its demise, when he lost control three quarters of the way across it at over 120 kph I figured we were going to die but bmws are tough cars. The battery was compressed to about 2cm in length.
The local cop found us because the idiot driving had caused people to complain about his driving earlier. Thanks Peter, T.O. not so much.