The Westland District Council advises it will consider options for repair, replacement or permanent closure of the Totara River Bridge on the West Coast Wilderness Trail at its meeting on 29 August.

Mayor Helen Lash has reiterated that the council’s decision to immediately close the bridge after receiving an engineering report saying failure of the structure was a very high risk, was the only reasonable decision the council could make.

“We were acutely aware of the impact on the Ross community, but it would have been very irresponsible of us to allow the bridge to continue to be used. Our health and safety responsibilities had to take priority.”

Acting Chief Executive Scott Baxendale said he sympathised with businesses in Ross that depended on the income from visitors generated by the rail trail. However, he said the latest report indicating imminent risk had emerged only recently. Previous inspections, while signalling significant repair or replacement was required, had indicated there was time to investigate, plan and budget for various options that council could consider.

“A meeting was held with the Ross community on the 5 August to table a WSP consultancy report that advised that the Tōtara Rail bridge required closure,” Mr Baxendale said. “Community members requested that council staff review the situation again with WSP structural engineers and seek a temporary waiver to have the bridge remain open until the 31 of March 2025, to allow for the coming tourist season.

“However, at a review meeting on 13 August 2024, WSP reported: ‘Council have now requested if the recommendation to close the bridge can be pushed back eight months to cater for the upcoming tourist season. We have reviewed our previous findings and, unfortunately, due to the large number of components at end of life throughout the bridge, we do not consider this request suitable in the interest of public safety. We also do not consider that there are practical measures to restore the bridge to a serviceable condition to achieve use of the bridge for the upcoming tourist season’.”

Acting Group Manager District Assets Erle Bencich said council had been actively considering what options there were for repair or replacement of the bridge during the last two years and had set aside some budget in the annual plan for such investigations.

“It is true that council removed from the annual plan an allocation of funds for work on the Totara Bridge options as a cost saving measure, but this was because it was thought there was time to do this work in another financial year.

“Now that council has accepted its responsibility to close the bridge for health and safety reasons, an options report is being finalised for elected members to consider on 29 August.”

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