Bridge It NZ claims it can build a viable one-lane bridge over the Makaretu River for $2.75m.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s five times cheaper than the council\u2019s estimate to build a two-lane bridge, which the council claims makes the rebuild unviable.<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s estimate for a one-lane bridge is $9m, three times the cost.<\/p>\n
Central Hawke\u2019s Bay District Council group manager of infrastructure and asset management Mark Kinvig said the council knew how important the bridge was to the community, and it wanted an economical solution.<\/p>\n
But any replacement bridge had to be built to specifications and design standards required of all public road bridges across New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe proposed circa $16m for a two-lane bridge, as NZTA [NZ Transport Agency] process requires us to prepare an estimate for a modern bridge in order to calculate the cost-benefit ratio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also tested the like-for-like replacement of a single lane bridge [estimated value of $9m] with NZTA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be going back to the community with NZTA\u2019s feedback on our two proposals.\u201d <\/p>\n
Building a ford across the river has also been deemed unviable by NZTA.<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s preferred option is to spend $560,000 of NZTA funding, made available to the council for cyclone recovery works, to demolish the current bridge connection.<\/p>\n
In previous information provided to the community during consultation, the council said NZTA wasn\u2019t currently offering to co-fund more than the cost of demolition, because the bridge had low traffic volume before it was damaged, and the detour for affected users of the bridge was 5km.<\/p>\n
Kinvig said they had worked through various scenarios with the Takapau community, and in the most recent community meeting, \u201csome people\u201d had asked for investigations into the viability of other options to repair it, which he said they did. <\/p>\n
\u201cNZTA is currently reviewing the various options, and once we have a decision on co-funding, we will be heading back to the Takapau community to discuss the findings with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The council would make a final decision over what would happen at the site in June, a council spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Ellison said he couldn\u2019t understand the massive discrepancy in costings, when Bridge It NZ had told him a single-lane multispan bridge that met state highway standards could be built over the river for $2.75m. <\/p>\n
He said the community was \u201cfed up\u201d with being told the bridge was unviable while watching the council spend money on \u201cnon-essential\u201d infrastructure, such as $200,000 for a rebuild of the Tukituki-Tarewa Swing Bridge for cyclists.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne lady has to do 56km a day to get her kids to the college, which is a huge cost to her, and it\u2019s even worse now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone\u2019s house burnt down on Burnside Rd or was on fire or a cardiac arrest or medical event, it takes the fire brigade at least 10 minutes to get around and back to the same place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ellison said the bridge\u2019s closure had impacted school buses, contractors, businesses, emergency service response times and mail delivery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s essential to the community, and it\u2019s had a huge flow-on effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burnside Bridge near Takapau, Central Hawke’s Bay, was left damaged after Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023. Photo \/ Central Hawke’s Bay District Council<\/p>\n
Bridge It NZ sales and marketing manager Dan Batey said he stood by his quote of $2.75m for a replacement one-lane bridge. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to take each site for being unique, and not taking a blanket approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe bridge … clearly doesn\u2019t need to be $16m.\u201d <\/p>\n
Batey said his estimation was based on \u201cfirm knowledge of product costs\u201d and a similar, smaller bridge built in the area. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe were quite generous with a lot of our allowances, because obviously each site is very site-specific and has its own constraints.\u201d<\/p>\n
His quote included input data, geotech surveying, catchment analysis, design, and lodgement of council and other consents, and land easements if needed.<\/p>\n
He said it would be built to the same standard as \u201ca typical state highway bridge\u201d and have unrestricted use.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to understand where that difference is coming from, and what the constraints are of not being open to taking a different or common-sense approach.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said preventing overcomplication was a key part of keeping costs down.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are treating a small council road like a state highway bridge it\u2019s obviously going to escalate costs unnecessarily,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only ones missing out are the ones on the other side of that bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kinvig said the council was aware the community wanted to keep the bridge but \u201ctough decisions\u201d needed to be made.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how strongly some of our Takapau community feel about Burnside Bridge. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe effort they have put into looking at alternatives reflects that. <\/p>\n
\u201cReplacing this bridge would be millions of dollars. If ratepayers were to pay for it alone, that would mean sacrificing a lot of other things.\u201d <\/p>\n
Two other bridges also remain closed in Central Hawke\u2019s Bay due to damage from Cyclone Gabrielle \u2013 Tod Rd Bridge and Wilson Cutting Bridge. <\/p>\n
Michaela Gower joined Hawke\u2019s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke\u2019s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bridge It NZ claims it can build a viable one-lane bridge over the Makaretu River for $2.75m. That\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1975,1863,1561,17517,1565,160689,1853,2741,1259,4187,5205,17153,12026,51175,19995,1976,185,101,440,1132,111,43,139,69,1523,4482,2853,6739,3175,6859,90587,1316,6730],"class_list":["post-403957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-at","tag-back","tag-bay","tag-because","tag-bridge","tag-burnside","tag-central","tag-claim","tag-community","tag-cost","tag-council","tag-damaged","tag-farmer","tag-fights","tag-gobsmacked","tag-hawkes","tag-is","tag-left","tag-local","tag-million","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-replace","tag-replacement","tag-river","tag-rural","tag-told","tag-unviable","tag-when","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403957","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=403957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}