Auckland traffic: All eight lanes on Harbour Bridge open again

The Auckland Harbour Bridge is reopen to traffic on all lanes for the first time in nearly three weeks. Photo / Alex Burton

It's a monumental start to the working day for the tens of thousands of motorists who use Auckland's harbour bridge - with all eight lanes open for the morning rush hour for the first time in weeks.

Aucklanders are being thanked for their understanding and support as the New Zealand Transport Agency announced all lanes on the bridge were once more open to traffic.

For the first time in more than a fortnight, five lanes are dedicated to vehicles heading towards the city.

AUCKLAND HARBOUR BRIDGE UPDATE

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency says the Auckland Harbour Bridge has been restored to 100% capacity with all eight lanes now open again. The new strut is performing well and there has been no other damage to other parts of the bridge. (1/2)

— Auckland Transport (@AklTransport) October 6, 2020

It comes after a fraught fortnight of gridlocked travel to get from the North Shore to the city during peak hours following a disastrous truck crash that damaged a major strut on the superstructure last month.

One motorist greeted the news with enthusiasm on social media, saying: "Best news to start my day with!"

SH1 AKL HARBOUR BRIDGE - WED 7 OCT
All lanes on the Akl Harbour Bridge are now OPEN. This means five southbound lanes are currently operating in the southbound direction. We are grateful for the understanding & support we received over the past few weeks. Thanks #AklTraffic. ^MF pic.twitter.com/UMk1DAqX8w

— Waka Kotahi NZTA Auckland & Northland (@WakaKotahiAkNth) October 6, 2020

All lanes on the bridge reopened following rush hour last night, after a replacement giant 22.7m strut was successfully installed on Saturday night.

"We know the last two and a half weeks have been frustrating for bridge users, especially at peak times, and we are as pleased as everyone else that we have been able to repair the damage and get it operating at full capacity much sooner than we had initially thought," said Waka Kotahi NZTA general manager transport services Brett Gliddon.

"We are grateful for the understanding and support we've had while we have worked as quickly as possible to safely repair the bridge and re-open all lanes."

Gliddon said engineers had been monitoring the new strut and its load-bearing function within the bridge superstructure over the past couple of days to see how the entire bridge was performing with the new piece in place.

"The new strut is performing well and there has been no other damage to other parts of the bridge. That means the bridge can now function with all eight lanes."

The bridge had been reduced to six lanes since September 18, when a 127km/h wind gust blew over a truck, damaging a load-bearing bridge strut.

Motorists had been forced to use alternate routes, often taking two hours to reach one side of the city to the other in peak-hour travel.

Due to the ongoing track fault between Grafton and Morningside, the following services from Swanson to Britomart are cancelled this morning:

05:47am, 06:07am, 06:27am, 06:47am, 07:07am, 07:27am, 07:47am, 08:07am pic.twitter.com/PYwYYPMpWM

— Auckland Transport (@AklTransport) October 6, 2020