Repair On Cards For Cracked Coastal Bridge

Tuesday, 29 April 2025, 7:30 pm
Article: Emily Ireland - Local Democracy Reporter

Close to $1 million will be needed to fix a failing, cracked bridge on a coastal South Wairarapa road.

Councillors were set to meet Wednesday to approve a repair option for Riddiford’s Bridge on Te Awaiti Rd.

Built in 1948, an inspection of the bridge in 2023 found large cracks running almost the entire height of the western pier.

A report by Egis NZ said the crack main had occurred or widened significantly between 2017 and 2019.

It was not clear what had caused the crack.

“As there appears to be on-going widening of the crack and the axial load capacity of the pier has likely been compromised, we strongly recommend proceeding with further investigation of the damage and remedial work as soon as practicable,” the December 2023 report said.

Since then, use of the single-lane bridge had been restricted to a single vehicle of 30 tonnes crossing at less than 10kph.

The repair option recommended to council would cost $945,000 and involve the installation of temporary propping to support the bridge while repairs were done.

Loose concrete would then be removed and new reinforcing anchors installed.

An option to replace the bridge was discounted due to “extremely low traffic volume” on the bridge.

A report to the Strategy Working Committee said $500,000 had been included in the 2024-25 budget to repair the bridge, but an additional $445,000 was required.

Council staff have recommended that the shortfall of capital expenditure funding be loan-funded in the 2025/2026 financial year, contingent on NZTA approving a 51% subsidy.

If the subsidy was not approved, staff would come back to council for a decision on whether to proceed or not.

A resource consent estimated to cost $20,000 has already been submitted to Greater Wellington Regional Council to complete the works.

This is because the Oterei River that the bridge crosses is classified as a scheduled habitat for native fish, specifically native inanga.

A specific fish management plan by a qualified ecologist is required and has been commissioned.

Along with preparing a fish management plan, the ecologist would likely need to be on site at the start of the works to carry out an inspection to determine if any species of migrating fish are found.

Also included in the $945,000 budget is $25,000 of geotechnical investigations and $100,000 for “repair design and tender documentation and contract supervision”.

Engineers WSP conducted 121 structural inspections in 2023/24 on roading assets across Carterton and South Wairarapa.

Eleven bridges were identified as needing urgent attention.

Ruamahanga Roads, which delivers the roading contract for both councils, has previously highlighted that the councils’ current budgets were insufficient to address all identified work required.

The Strategy Working Committee was set to meet at 10am on Wednesday in Martinborough.

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

© Scoop Media

Local Democracy Reporting

Content from the Local Democracy Reporting (LDR) service is published by Scoop as a registered New Zealand Media Outlet LDR Partner.