{"id":283055,"date":"2026-02-14T01:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/283055\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T01:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T01:05:13","slug":"waikato-floods-highway-bridge-collapses-ute-plunges-into-gap-north-of-otorohanga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/283055\/","title":{"rendered":"Waikato floods: Highway bridge collapses, ute plunges into gap north of \u014ctorohanga"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe water was going right over it [last night] \u2026 1771031113 you can see the whole deck of the bridge has slumped, and the abutments on the other side have gone too \u2013 it\u2019s toast.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went to the scene last night after a friend travelling from Te Awamutu saw a farm bridge \u201cfloating down the river<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"BridgeBridge 520 on State Highway 39 south of Mangati Rd, near Puketotara, suffered a partial washout amid flooding in parts of Waikato last night. Photo \/ Wayne Feisst\"AA ute pictured after crashing into the gap left by a washout of Bridge 520 on State Highway 39, near Puketotara. Photo \/ Wayne Feisst<\/p>\n

The farm bridge had \u201cwedged up\u201d on the side of the highway bridge, Feisst said.<\/p>\n

\"FloodwatersFloodwaters were flowing over Bridge 520 on State Highway 39, near Puketotara, on Friday night and it has been badly damaged, resident Wayne Feisst says. Photo \/ Wayne Feisst<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s blocked over half the bridge and that\u2019s what\u2019s caused the water to go around the end and wash out the abutments. [Last night] the water was completely across the road and it was obvious from the currents that it was washing the abutments of the bridge out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got hold of the council<\/a> but they were absolutely flat tack with slips obviously everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA view of damaged Bridge 520 on State Highway 39. Photo \/ Wayne Feisst<\/p>\n

He got a \u201chang of a shock\u201d to see the ute crashed into the washout when he returned at first light.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was fortunately nobody inside \u2026 [later] there was a guy there and it was his mate that had driven off. [He said] he wasn\u2019t hurt, just a bit heartbroken because it looked like it was a fairly brand new Ford Ranger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The heavy rain began about 1.30pm Friday and \u201cjust carried on and on and on\u201d, Feisst said.<\/p>\n

\"ThereThere was serious flooding in parts of \u014ctorohanga and surrounding districts on Friday night. Photo \/ Wayne Feisst<\/p>\n

The gauge on the dairy farm where he lived recorded \u201c250-300mm of rain in eight hours\u201d, and there was lots of thunder and lightning with it, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the sort of rain that you can hear it pounding on the roof \u2026 we\u2019d have a gap for five minutes and then it\u2019d come straight back again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FarmFarm worker Jano was among those beginning the clean-up after deadly flooding in parts of Waikato overnight. Photo \/ Wayne Feisst<\/p>\n

He\u2019d escaped flooding<\/a> but had seen a hazelnut farm crop \u201cdecimated\u201d and a maize crop and silage almost ready for cutting that had been \u201ctotally wiped out\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"It'llIt’ll be a busy day for roading contractors, with slips such as this one in the Puketotara area likely. Photo \/ Wayne Feisst<\/p>\n

About half an olive orchard was also gone, Feisst said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe water was going right over it [last night] \u2026 1771031113 you can see the whole deck of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,17517,1565,42503,42501,15979,3092,38114,109,26755,296,111,43,139,529,69,1118,43382,35787,10710,312,3934,157571,86465,35538,1524,540],"class_list":{"0":"post-283055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-because","10":"tag-bridge","11":"tag-collapsed","12":"tag-collapses","13":"tag-crashed","14":"tag-floods","15":"tag-gap","16":"tag-ground","17":"tag-highway","18":"tag-into","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-newzealand","22":"tag-north","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-of","25":"tag-partially","26":"tag-plunges","27":"tag-resident","28":"tag-says","29":"tag-structure","30":"tag-toast","31":"tag-torohanga","32":"tag-ute","33":"tag-waikato","34":"tag-where"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283055","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=283055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}