Milestone reached for Kawarau Falls bridge

An aerial photo of the Kawarau Falls bridge replacement project, near Queenstown, taken on Friday. Photo / NZTA

The placement of the last steel girder means the new, 250m Kawarau Falls bridge now fully spans the Kawarau River.

NZ Transport Agency senior project manager Phil Dowsett said pre-cast concrete slabs were being installed over the girders, and the road deck would be completed by the end of this month.

The other focus of the 30 workers now on site was the construction of a gabion wall to strengthen about 100m of the river bank on the southern side, Mr Dowsett said.

The $22 million, two-lane bridge near Queenstown was to have been completed this December, but its schedule was extended after an eleventh-hour decision by the Queenstown Lakes District Council to attach a water and wastewater pipeline while the bridge was still under construction.

Work on the $7.2m pipeline project is expected to begin next week.

The NZ Transport Agency announced last month that one lane of the new bridge would open to traffic by Christmas, with the other lane required for the pipeline work.

But the existing one-lane bridge will remain open, allowing two-way traffic across the river in time for the spike in traffic during the Christmas-New Year holiday period.

The new bridge is expected to be fully completed by the end of March.

Traffic restrictions will remain until the middle of next year while landscaping and other bridge infrastructure is completed.

- Otago Daily Times