Newmarket Viaduct Deconstruction

 

The old part of the Newmarket Viaduct is being dismantled.

Part of Newmarket’s Broadway will be reduced to one lane each way from 7am to 8pm this Saturday and Sunday for deconstruction work on the old southbound Newmarket Viaduct.

The affected section of road, between Mortimer Pass and Alpers Ave, will also be closed completely overnight during the weekend.

With the first half of the new viaduct now open, the old southbound viaduct is being dismantled, piece by piece, as Stage 2 of the Newmarket Connection: Viaduct Replacement Project.

Over 30 individual segments, each weighing approximately 60-tonne, have already been lowered to the ground and transported off-site to be crushed for recycling.

Stage 2 works are also being carried out at the viaduct’s southern abutment. Here, a more conventional approach to demolition is taking place due to the tight working environment between the motorway on-ramp and rail corridor.

The Southern Motorway re-opening after last year's major closure

This weekend’s traffic management measures are being put in place to ensure the safety of vehicles and pedestrians. Shops and businesses will remain open as normal, with vehicle access to Mahuru St available from Nuffield St. Access will also be provided for residents on Edgerley Ave.

The project team plans to lower a segment down next to Broadway on Saturday afternoon.

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4 Comments

 
  1. LarryH says:

    Well timed to avoid other big events in Auckland like the Ports of Auckland Round the Bays, this weekend.

    Hope all the runners are using the trains.

  2. GJA says:

    Does anybody know if the old viaduct would have ‘survived’, a similar 6.3 quake? What about the new one?

  3. rtc says:

    The new one is supposed to be able to survive big quakes, the former one wouldn’t have apparently - hence why it’s getting replaced.

  4. mark says:

    As we learned from Christchurch, a quake’s magnitude is only a shorthand description of it’s violence - it isn’t the only factor that would determine whether or not a structure fails. Vertical as well as horizontal acceleration, distance and depth from the epicentre, localised surrounding geology, all play a role.

    In short: who knows? Probably only the structural engineers, and even they would need to study it in depth, I guess.

    One assumes thugh, that whatever type of quake, the new design will be much, much stronger now, and hopefully also includes “controlled failure” elements, as much as that is practicable in a bridge.

 

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