{"id":151429,"date":"2025-11-24T16:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/151429\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:25:09","slug":"one-of-the-biggest-crane-lifts-in-new-zealand-for-new-bridge-north-of-wairoa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/151429\/","title":{"rendered":"One of the biggest crane lifts in New Zealand for new bridge north of Wairoa"},"content":{"rendered":"

It will leave just as quickly, heading by the end of next week to the Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm project near Dargaville.<\/p>\n

Crane company owner Tim Smith said a job such as the bridge replacement would normally have involved two cranes, one on either side of the river.<\/p>\n

However, the site and access would have made it difficult to locate a crane on the western side.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be one of the biggest lifts in New Zealand, I would think,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The road is closed from 8am to 6pm each day this week, extended to 6am to 8pm on Thursday when the bridge, constructed at the site by Napier company Eastbridge, will be lifted to an elevation of 70m.<\/p>\n

It will be swivelled into place, straddling the Wairoa River without any piers.<\/p>\n

By the time the bridge is open, it will end four years of disruption for the communities of Te Reinga, Ruakituri, Ohuka and Erepeti since the old bridge, built in the 1930s, was badly damaged in flooding in March 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reopened to foot access and light vehicles (up to 3.5 tonnes), excluding heavier farm vehicles and trucks which had to take a circuitous detour, it was closed after a pier washed out in Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023.<\/p>\n

The broken bridge was removed and a temporary \u201cBailey\u201d bridge opened in February 2024, with a 10kmh speed limit and a maximum vehicle weight of 44 tonnes.<\/p>\n

Farmer Nukuhia Hadfield says the replacement is \u201cthe light at the end of the tunnel\u201d for an important area of farming productivity in the Wairoa district.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s a light she wondered if she would ever see.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the amount of damage that was done and as widespread as it was, things had had to be prioritised,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWere we going to be put at the bottom?<\/p>\n

Locals will be heading down to watch the lift from a viewing platform on the western side of the river.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a sight to behold,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The $14 million contract is headed by Wairoa District Council-owned Quality Roading and Services, with Mayor Craig Little saying it\u2019s an \u201cexciting\u201d time for the area and the company.<\/p>\n

QRS contract manager Mike Wilson, who has been involved with the Te Reinga bridge issues since the 2022 flooding, described Thursday\u2019s lift as \u201chuge,\u201d \u201camazing\u201d and \u201cright up there\u201d.<\/p>\n

Doug Laing is a Hawke\u2019s Bay Today reporter based in Napier. He has been a reporter for more than 50 years, most of it in Hawke\u2019s Bay, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will leave just as quickly, heading by the end of next week to the Kaiwaikawe Wind Farm…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3017,6326,1565,101116,2082,78,296,25619,28059,117,111,43,139,529,69,1118,5270,6744,101117,58218,223,28050,15289,1316,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-151429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-ahead","9":"tag-biggest","10":"tag-bridge","11":"tag-crane","12":"tag-for","13":"tag-in","14":"tag-into","15":"tag-lifts","16":"tag-lowered","17":"tag-new","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-north","22":"tag-nz","23":"tag-of","24":"tag-one","25":"tag-place","26":"tag-reinga","27":"tag-single","28":"tag-the","29":"tag-thursday","30":"tag-wairoa","31":"tag-when","32":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}