would come down<\/a>, clearing the path for Manawat\u016b River users and avoiding a costly repair bill.<\/p>\nThe removal work finished on Thursday, leaving only the bridge’s concrete pylons remaining.<\/p>\n
Horizons central region engineer Paul Arcus said, given the bridge’s importance to the local community and historical value, great care was taken with the removal.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JTQCWR_Opiki_bridge_2026_removal_4_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe former toll bridge is no longer connected over the Manawat\u016b River.
\nPhoto: Supplied\/Horizons Regional Council\n<\/p>\n
The tension was removed from the cables, before they were cut at each end and then pulled out using heavy machinery.<\/p>\n
“We had to create bespoke clamps to hold on to them,” Arcus said. “They’re definitely constructed in a way that wouldn’t be done these days, so we had to get new things created, so we could hold on to them.”<\/p>\n
For now, they’d sit in a paddock next to the bridge site, while their future was decided, Arcus said.<\/p>\n
Bits of it would likely be given to community groups or other parties that had expressed an interest.<\/p>\n
The removal work cost about $70,000, while repair options could have hit about $130,000, without factoring in extra bills, such as for consenting.<\/p>\n
“It’s a little bit out of the council’s wheelhouse of what we do as a core activity and we don’t have funding directly related to historic structures.<\/p>\n
“I think the council themselves have decided that this is the sensible solution,” Arcus said.<\/p>\n
The bridge was built by the Akers family for their flax business in 1918 and the cabling is said to have been secondhand then – sourced from Waihi’s gold mines.<\/p>\n
The flax industry collapsed shortly after, but the bridge remained open as a private toll route, until the current state highway bridge opened in 1969.<\/p>\n
The suspension bridge’s decking was removed then, but it’s remained as a landmark for commuters for more than 50 years since – albeit one that now looks different.<\/p>\n
This week, Clive Akers, who still lives near the bridge, said he was relaxed about the cabling’s removal.<\/p>\n
Historic Places Trust Manawat\u016b Horowhenua chairwoman Cindy Lilburn said the trust was saddened to see the cables go from such an iconic structure.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Work to remove the cables finished on Thursday. Photo: Supplied\/Horizons Regional Council Decaying suspension cables have been removed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-272880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272880","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=272880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Work](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JTQE4R_OpikiBridgeCableRemoval2026_119_JPG.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n