Rail line to reopen in two weeks

Hawke's Bay regional council workers spent the weekend containing any pollution from the rail crane that plunged from a bridge into the Nuhaka River last week.

The crane tumbled into the river on Friday morning when the rail bridge on the Palmerston North-Gisborne line collapsed as a maintenance train, which had been sent to repair a faulty pile on the bridge, crawled across it.

Council staff set up absorbent booms around the crane on Saturday and this had contained the small quantity of hydraulic oil which had leaked, council environmental officer Ian Lilburn said.

The council had made arrangements for a salvage crew to pump 800 litres of hydraulic oil from the crane.

Ontrack, the crown entity responsible for the track network, is working on salvaging the crane. Building a rock causeway either side of the bridge is one option and Mr Lilburn said the council had given permission for this to happen, provided the causeway was later removed and the area returned to it's natural state.

Ontrack said the Palmerston North-Gisborne railway line would reopen on May 23.

- HAWKE'S BAY TODAY