{"id":599431,"date":"2026-09-13T21:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T21:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599431\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T21:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T21:02:13","slug":"expect-delays-as-bridge-over-canterbury-river-reopens-after-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/599431\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Expect delays&#8217; as bridge over Canterbury river reopens after crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>State Highway 1 over the Rakaia Bridge in Canterbury is back open this morning following an earlier three-vehicle crash. <\/p>\n<p>A police spokesperson said the crash blocked both lanes of the Rakaia Bridge &#8211; about 57km southwest of Christchurch &#8211; around 6.30am. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are no reports of serious injuries, however there will be delays while the vehicles involved are cleared,&#8221; police said. <\/p>\n<p>Shortly after 8am, New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said the bridge was open again following the crash. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Road users are advised to take extra care and to expect delays until congestion has cleared,&#8221; an NZTA spokesperson said. <\/p>\n<p>The bridge is New Zealand&#8217;s longest at 1757 metres long.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/image-below-of-traffic-backed-up-on-the-rakaia-bridge-after-LCZTENJPTZBB7FABTORROVU7UU.jpg\" alt=\"Image below of traffic backed up on the Rakaia Bridge after a crash.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"ImageMetadata__MetadataParagraph-sc-hi5x8q-0 cWTYyG image-metadata\">Image below of traffic backed up on the Rakaia Bridge after a crash. (Source: NZTA)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-greyDarkFaded\">The morning&#8217;s headlines in 90 seconds, including a coroner slams our drinking culture, Trump brushes off AI concerns, and Celine is back. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"State Highway 1 over the Rakaia Bridge in Canterbury is back open this morning following an earlier three-vehicle&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1081,158,111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-599431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-accident","tag-christchurch-canterbury","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599431","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=599431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}