{"id":588381,"date":"2026-09-02T23:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T23:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/588381\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T23:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T23:18:10","slug":"edith-cavell-bridge-reopens-after-milford-sound-quakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/588381\/","title":{"rendered":"Edith Cavell Bridge reopens after Milford Sound quakes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earthquakes renew focus on Milford Sound risks<\/p>\n

Fallen rocks have been removed from the road after last night’s earthquakes in the South Island, and a major bridge has reopened following an inspection.<\/p>\n

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake hit 40 kilometres northeast of Milford Sound<\/a> at 6:16pm on Wednesday. That was followed by a 5.6 quake, and three more light to weak aftershocks.<\/p>\n

Edith Cavell Bridge was closed this morning until engineers inspected the structure, the Queenstown Lakes District Council said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The bridge crosses the Shotover River in Arthurs Point, about 15 minutes from Queenstown.<\/p>\n

Crews were also working to open one lane of Glenorchy-Queenstown Road.<\/p>\n

“The team are aiming to open one lane of Glenorchy-Queenstown Road (between One Mile Roundabout and Sunshine Bay turn-off) from 2pm this afternoon. The lane heading into Queenstown will remain closed until at least Thursday next week while repair work is completed following a recent slip – traffic can still detour over Fernhill Road.”<\/p>\n

The Queenstown Lakes District Council said minor rockfall on SH6 through the Kawarau Gorge had now been cleared.<\/p>\n

More information on tsunami risk being gathered<\/p>\n

The tsunami risk at Piopiotahi\/ Milford Sound has been known for some time but new science and modelling is underway to understand it better, DOC’s Southern, South Island director Aaron Fleming says.<\/p>\n

He was talking to Morning Report after Southland’s mayor Rob Scott told the programme<\/a> the tragedy in Nepal should prompt practical preparation for the threat of a tsunami at Piopiotahi \/Milford Sound.<\/p>\n

DOC now had a communications strategy so that information could be shared with people before they visited the area, Fleming said.<\/p>\n

\"Milford<\/p>\n

Milford Sound in Fiordland.<\/p>\n

123rf<\/p>\n

DOC was working with Emergency Management Southland, NEMA and councils as well as businesses operating in the region.<\/p>\n

It was important that people understood their options for staying safe if a tsunami was triggered in Milford Sound were limited, he said.<\/p>\n

In the next few months modelling would take place to understand the type of wave it would create, its size and its impact.<\/p>\n

“That will certainly help us hone our skills in terms of the response and how we can better mitigate the risk.”<\/p>\n

Fleming said Milford Sound was the eighth wonder of the world and “a visitor magnet” and DOC wanted to encourage people to enjoy it.<\/p>\n

During the earthquake that occurred in the area in July people went along the road away from the scene and were able to get to higher ground.<\/p>\n

However, he stressed the timeframe to leave was very short.<\/p>\n

“The modelling we are doing …will give us more details around the length of time people will have because it’s not a lot of time. But the best thing you can do is if it’s long or strong, get to that higher ground.”<\/p>\n

Once the modelling was finished it would help with details on evacuation routes and other safety messages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earthquakes renew focus on Milford Sound risks Fallen rocks have been removed from the road after last night’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-588381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588381","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=588381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}