A digger was jolted free from a transport truck which clipped a bridge on Dunedin's Southern Motorway this afternoon, affecting traffic for several hours.
There were no injuries reported in the incident, in which the truck appeared to have clipped the underside of the motorway bridge near Orange St, the impact jolting the digger free.
Around 2.45pm Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency said the southbound left lane before the Main South Rd off-ramp would be closed for several hours to allow for vehicle recovery.
In an update at 4.30pm the agency said the lane had reopened. Motorists could expect delays as congestion eased through the area.
Following the incident, debris, including broken shackles, cold be seen on the road.
Concord resident Sarah Harradine said she was coming home from work and had to pull over because the unmarked truck was coming down the middle of Emerson St "quite fast".
‘‘His boom was right up,’’ Mrs Harradine said. She said the digger "took out the phone lines for the three houses across the road".
Her husband had been watching TV at the time, and remarked that he hoped the digger did not hit something.
Five minutes later, they heard sirens coming from the motorway.
There were subdivisions being built on the hill above them and phone lines had previously been taken out by trucks, Mrs Harradine said.
Lookout Point Senior Station Officer Peter Brosnan said crew with two Fire and Emergency NZ appliances attended and helped with traffic management and checking the bridge with engineers.
Mr Brosnan was pleased to see that road users were taking care to drive slowly past the crash site, making life a lot easier for emergency services.
St John was alerted at 12.58pm but was not required to attend, a spokeswoman said.
