Replacement for Kopu Bridge in Thames years away

By AINSLEY THOMSON


While motorists sit in queues at the Kopu Bridge this summer cursing the one-lane gateway to the Coromandel, planners will be busy finding "innovative solutions" to the traffic nightmare.

A replacement is planned for the 75-year-old bridge, but construction is not due to start until 2010.

So Environment Waikato, Transit and the Thames Coromandel District Council are working on other solutions to the traffic problem.

But none of them will be ready this summer.

Two ideas have been floated.

The first involves closing down passing lanes leading up to the 463m bridge.

This will slow traffic down, allowing it to flow smoothly.

The second idea is to divert Waikato traffic through Paeroa.

Although the route is longer, it will take the same amount of time when delays at the bridge are factored in.

Environment Waikato group manager of policy, Jeanette Black, said there were likely to be other solutions.

The community would be consulted to see what the preferred options were.

"If we wait for the replacement bridge, we will be waiting a long time. So we thought we would do something as an interim measure," Mrs Black said.

The historic bridge, which crosses the Waihou River, is New Zealand's last swing-span road bridge.

An electric motor spins the middle 47m of the bridge on the central span so boats can pass on either side.

Construction of the new bridge has been delayed while Transit resolves an appeal from the Thames Coromandel District Council and the Hauraki District Council.

The councils filed appeals against consents to build the $28 million bridge until the cost of maintaining the old one is sorted out.

Once the new bridge is built it will be designated a state highway.

The old one will become a local road, leaving ratepayers with an annual $200,000 maintenance bill.

It will also need a $1 million spruce-up at some stage.

The old bridge will eventually serve only cyclists and pedestrians.