Completion of the second of two replacement bridges on South Canterbury’s State Highway 82 means safer, more reliable travel for all users of this important inland road. 

The new Waihao North River Bridge has recently been completed by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) and is now in use on SH82/Hakataramea Highway, which connects State Highway 1 to popular tourist destinations in the Mackenzie Basin and Central Otago. The new Elephant Hill Stream Bridge further along SH82 opened in May of this year (see images & map below).

“Having these two replacement bridges both complete and in use by the travelling public is a fantastic milestone to reach ahead of the festive season and holiday period,” says NZTA project sponsor Sean Walsh.

“It is a significant upgrade for SH82 given that the old bridges were more than 100 years old and becoming more and more costly to maintain. Replacing them both with modern, resilient structures significantly reduces that maintenance bill and provides assurance for all users, whether it be visitors, farmers, the freight industry, or local communities. Both replacement bridges have two traffic lanes and do away with previous load restrictions that applied on this section of SH82.”

The two new bridges were delivered by NZTA and its contractor HEB Construction as a package, well within budget and ahead of schedule. Temporary bridges were installed in each case while the existing bridges were deconstructed, and the new permanent bridges were built.

“We’ve had excellent support and patience shown by the local communities as we’ve done this work,” Mr Walsh says.

“It’s a great result to be able to deliver these new bridges for those communities, and other highway users, in a timely way with minimal disruption.” 

These two new bridges in South Canterbury are part of NZTA’s End of Life Bridge Replacement Programme. The programme is prioritised nationally by assessing whether replacement in the short term represents better value than continued maintenance over the medium to long term. This assessment includes the age, condition, and structural performance of individual bridges, and how these factors influence future deterioration, risk, and maintenance requirements.