Work above the ground has begun at the bridge site on the Kōpū-Hikuai Rd.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said the first two structures of the bridge were visible at Pier B.
“It’s an exciting time for the team on-site with two of the four column cages installed at Pier B. This means construction of the actual bridge structure is underway,” Waka Kotahi said in its weekly update.
Abutment A and D: We poured the blinding concrete at Abutment D and have landed both Abutment A and Abutment D reinforcement cages. The team is now fixing and forming the cages for our first abutment pour later in the week.
Pier B: Concrete pile pours at Pier B were completed, which included our deepest pile to date – 41 metres. This is double the depth of the other piles (about 22m deep). These piles have already been cropped and undergone integrity testing. The team has started installing the column cages for the bridge, two of four have been installed at Pier B. We can now see the structure appearing out of the slip floor (as per the photo below).
Pier C: We completed the working platform at Pier C and moved our piling rig into position. We’ve drilled out the four piles and poured the first one today. Once we’ve finished the remaining three pours, this will mark the completion of the Taparahi bridge piling activity. This means, our piling rig and crew will be demobilising and head off-site to another project – thanks team!
Off-site: The steel bridge girders continue to make their way through the paint booth in preparation for transport to site later this month. Also in production are the precast concrete elements and the rails which will run along the top of the bridge barriers.
