Over Labour Weekend in late October, a faulty traffic signal system resulted in lengthy delays, leading to a traffic manager being brought in to clear the backlog, which went all the way to Raes Junction.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency journey manager Nicole Felts said the traffic signals did road users no favours at Labour Weekend.
Since then the traffic light system had been phased differently to reduce the number of signals and there was a live monitor linking to Waka Kotahi’s transport operations centre. The operations centre could manually adjust the signals if there were significant traffic flows in one direction.
People still needed to bear in mind that a single-lane bridge would be a traffic pinch point on busy days and people should take the opportunity to relax if they faced a short wait of a few minutes for the green light, Miss Felts said.
Work at the new bridge will be paused from today through to January 9.
In the week starting January 16, there will be a full dig-out of the old road past the Beaumont Hotel with a detour on to Dee and Westferry Sts. All vehicles can use the detour.
Work is continuing on the $25 million bridge project with a big focus over the summer construction season to complete the eastern and western road approaches to the new bridge.
Excavation of sensitive historical areas of the new bridge site has been completed and only minor items relating to late 19th century land use activities in the area were unearthed.
All lizard relocation work from within the vicinity of the eastern approach to the new bridge has been successfully carried out.
About 80,000 tonnes of bulk material required for the new bridge embankment and road approach is being sourced within 1km of the work site.
The transportation of bulk material to the bridge site should be completed by March next year.
The new two-lane bridge will be 195m long and sit about 12m above the average river level and is formed by curved steel girders supported by four concrete piers.
It features weathering steel beams — with a rusty look — made of high-strength structural steel that forms a corrosion-resistant surface, prolonging the life of the bridge.
It is designed to modern earthquake standards, there are safety barriers on the road approaches and there will be a shared cycling and walking path.
Construction of the bridge is expected to be completed by late next year.
