WAIAU RIVER BRIDGE

Press, Volume C, Issue 29499, 28 April 1961, Page 12

WAIAU RIVER BRIDGE

New Loading Restriction Increased load restrictions have been placed on the Watau river bridge on the Kaikoura - Culverden main highway by the National Roads Board. The maximum weight is now five tons, with a maximum axle load of three tons and a-half. Speed is restricted to 10 miles an hour. The bridge is an old wooden structure which was restricted in 1958 to a maximum loading of 10 tons and 15 miles an hour. The beams supporting the decking have rotted at their ends where they are supported above the piles, and major repairs have been under way for three weeks with about another three weeks’ work to be done. The bridge is being closed to traffic on several mornings a week. The bridge is the main outlet to Christchurch for the Waiau township and the surrounding country, and the only alternatives are the inland road to Kaikoura and a tortuous route over 20 miles of back road to Parnassus. A Transport Department spokesman last night confirmed that the load restrictions displayed on the bridge were enforceable. He said that the only alternative to such limitations was the

closing of the bridge. The maximum of five tons will mean that some heavy trucks may not be able to use the bridge when loaded, and others will have to carry very small loads to keep below the limit. A large articulated truck has an unladen weight of about five tons, and a seventon flat deck truck with a sheep crate would probably be not much less. Heavy shingle trucks can weigh four tons unloaded, and a five-ton flat deck truck about three tons.

There is about 170,000 acres of productive land, excluding high country, north of