Driving home height safety message

Photo / Dean Purcell

The NZ Transport Agency has begun a safety campaign in Auckland designed to stop overheight vehicles colliding with the region's motorway bridges.

Yesterday billboards were erected at 20 onramps around the motorway network, to raise driver awareness of vehicle height limits.

As well, measuring tools and height guidelines have been supplied to heavy haulage and transport organisations in the Auckland region.

The billboards will be in place for the next three to six months.

Current NZTA rules stipulate that the maximum height for a load is 4.25m, with over-dimension permits required when a load exceeds 5m. Written permission is required from the bridge owner, usually NZTA or the local council, if the load height exceeds 4.25m.

The 220km Auckland motorway network, which stretches from Pokeno to Puhoi and out to Westgate, has 75 underpasses, 10 footbridges and 53 sign gantries, which are also vulnerable.

Tommy Parker, Auckland state highways manager for NZTA, says there are on average 25 bridge strikes every year.

The latest, at Orams Rd on the Southern Motorway, cut a vital link between two communities for six weeks, and cost around $400,000 to repair. The damage was caused by a towed digging machine.

In October last year a digger on the back of a truck hit the old Onewa Rd overbridge, closing part of the Northern Motorway and causing major traffic chaos.

The bridge was later dismantled.

Common causes of bridge strike include unsecured crane booms and digger arms, incorrectly loaded diggers, loose loads, and uncovered containers.