Contractors are making ''good progress'' in preparing to replace the twin bridges spanning the Waitaki River, near Kurow, the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) says.
NZTA state highway manager Colin Knaggs said McConnell Dowell Constructors had already set up a site compound and work area on the south side of the Waitaki River, and were on schedule to start drilling 22m piles to replace the 132-year-old twin bridges with two new $18.5 million bridges in early May.
''Two large cranes - 100-tonne and 80-tonne - now dominate the skyline and work is under way commissioning the piling hammer to drill the first of the piles.
''Early works are also under way on the stream diversion culvert, the protection filter layer and installing the rip-rap that will form the new bridge abutment protection on the Kurow side of the new bridge,'' he said.