Subscribe to RSSSturges Road $8.6m Replacement Bridge Work Starts - Photos (Part I)
A start has been made on the $8.6 million Henderson’s Sturges Road replacement bridge project, taking place next to the train station there.
Managed by Waitakere City Council, the year-long project will be done in stages over the next 12 months, being completed in December.
Unlike the Remuera St Marks bridge, the council has to contribute to the cost of this, as I reported earlier.
The old 1940 bridge built by the government’s Railways department so steam trains could cope with the gradient, has reached the end of its life and is cracked and so had to be demolished.
While the new bridge is built, a single lane Bailey bridge, controlled by lights, is being installed. Pedestrians and cyclists will share that temporary footbridge.
Construction work on the new bridge proper won’t begin until late March.
The new bridge will be built one side at a time.
Once complete, the new Sturges Road Bridge will feature three traffic lanes and shared pedestrian and cycle paths on both sides.
The old bridge was not suitable for the electric trains. Improvements were needed to provide 60cm more clearance for electrification and for the double track underneath.
So the new bridge deck will be around 60 centimetres higher than the former structure, requiring the road level on the approaches to the bridge to be raised and widened.
At the moment, workers are doing retaining works from the track level to the base of the bridge abutment.
On average, 17,000 vehicles used the old bridge each day.
The work has meant a road closure in Sturges Rd between Swanson Rd and Septimus Place until January 18, when the rail corridor opens again.
Here are more close up photos of the start of the work::
9 Comments
I don’t understand why the Waitakere City Council is so useless and will take them 1 year to replace it when St Marks Rd can be replaced in 5 weeks. Also why aren’t they starting the new bridge now rather than wait till March
As someone who is affected by this it is really annoying as both the detours are quite long
Probably because they can get more done starting now and taking advantage of school holidays and better weather. One, starting in March doesn`t give them much time to get works underway before winter and two, St.Mark`s Bridge can be done sooner because Kiwirail have got heaps more staff available including many temporary staff from outside Auckland eg. Napier. I don`t believe Waitakere City Council has the resources to do that kind of thing.
I cannot understand why such a small bridge take almost a whole year to replace. This sounds like a 3rd world country to me.
Looking forward to see more updates on this project.
anybody know how many lanes there are going to be on the new bridge?
@Freddie Once complete, the new Sturges Road Bridge will feature three traffic lanes and shared pedestrian and cycle paths on both sides.
The Sturges Road Bridge will be installed over the live railway and so far what I have heard it has been the condition of the community to have the road traffic flowing at all times. St Marks bridge was different, no trains and no traffic. In addition the bridge construction includes work that the Council will have to undertake on behalf of Kiwi Rail i.e drainage, retaining walls . Its been advised that the retaining wall columns are going 30 m deep. On top of this we have the close proximity of the residential properties to the construction site, and the Council will not allow the contractor to work 24 hours a day.
I am sure the Council officers must have considered all the options and it will be naive and foolish really to think that they are delibrately trying to prolong the construction period. To what advantage? If some one has a better idea then they should approach the Council and make a difference. We do no good by just complaining and not adding any value what so ever.
JeetNZ you obviously are not affected by this pathetic example of a project. I am a senior project manager based in Auckland and work on these sorts of projects all over NZ and Australia. I cannot explain nor accept that this project can take 12 months. It can only be a result of sheer incompetence. If my company were delivering this project over 12months we would not be in business for very long. I would actually turn down the project if the client could not assist with accomodating a shorter time frame. It would not be worth losing our good reputation being associated with this pathetic implementation schedule.
The effect this has had on the local community is nothing short of embarrassing and is a clear example of the incompetence this council has displayed time and time again.
Why nothing was happening about this project in the first half of this year(2010)? I don’t understand! Can the council put the reason(s) on the brochure please….