Large trucks have been making up to 40km return detours to make deliveries, according to an advocacy group.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Transport Minister Chris Bishop and the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) announced the bridge would be strengthened and the weight restrictions lifted upon completion of the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe SH50 Ngaruroro River bridge is an important part of the transport network in Hawke\u2019s Bay and the current speed and weight restrictions have been hugely frustrating,\u201d Bishop said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know freight operators will be relieved that with funding now approved, strengthening work can finally get underway.<\/p>\n
\u201cTemporary restrictions on the Ngaruroro River Bridge have been in place since October 2022 after an assessment identified that, while the bridge was structurally safe to use, it did not have the capacity to sustain heavy traffic demands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Total project costs are expected to be between $10-$20m.<\/p>\n
Design and consenting have been completed and a contractor will be confirmed soon, with construction expected to start in 2026 and take about 11 months. <\/p>\n
Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand (TNZ), which advocates for the road freight industry, welcomed the announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge win for those in the Hawke\u2019s Bay region who have been waiting for the bridge to be strengthened for three years now,\u201d Lindsay Calvi-Freeman, TNZ\u2019s membership manager for the lower North Island, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe region produces a significant amount of primary products \u2013 including 60% of the country\u2019s apples and 12% of our beef.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese strengthening works will therefore be essential to unlocking the region\u2019s full economic potential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Temporary traffic management will continue to be in place during construction.<\/p>\n
The bridge currently has a weight restriction of a maximum 31 tonnes for trucks with eight or more axles. There is also a 30km\/h speed limit over the bridge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Large trucks have been making up to 40km return detours to make deliveries, according to an advocacy group.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[696,806,1561,682,1565,8556,49652,116890,2082,60830,738,266,5194,305,1976,116215,42031,1132,130,3180,111,43,139,69,57468,98829,74736,131,112,116889,5977,1533],"class_list":["post-185176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-announced","tag-as","tag-bay","tag-being","tag-bridge","tag-companies","tag-detours","tag-fernhill","tag-for","tag-freight","tag-funding","tag-government","tag-hastings","tag-have","tag-hawkes","tag-lauded","tag-lengthy","tag-million","tag-more","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rapt","tag-strengthen","tag-strengthening","tag-than","tag-transport","tag-truckies","tag-which","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185176","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=185176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}