MEDIA RELEASE
Horizons Regional Council

Wednesday 21 September, 2011

Partial opening a milestone for bridge

West-bound motorists will cross the new Kopane Bridge on the Oroua River for the first time next week as work resumes to widen the road embankment.
From Monday September 26 the new bridge will open to west-bound traffic travelling along Rongotea Road, while traffic travelling east towards Palmerston North will be diverted across to SH3 via Green Rd.
The east-bound diversion will remain in place until November 4 to allow the safe completion of road embankment earthworks which have been on hold over the winter months.

Horizons projects engineer Rob Gardner describes the partial opening as “an important milestone in the bridge’s construction”, which is part of a wider project to upgrade flood protection within the Lower Manawatu Scheme.

“Opening one lane to traffic is a significant step, but as road embankments are still incomplete speed restrictions will remain in place for some time”, he says.

“Due to the nature of the earthworks, it is safer, especially at night, to divert east-bound traffic away from the construction site rather than maintaining two-way flows under traffic light control.”

Horizons group manager of operations Allan Cook appreciates the diversion may cause some inconvenience in the short-term but says this will be outweighed by significant long-term benefits for a community familiar with the impact of floods.

Once the embankment has been widened, both lanes will be open to traffic with construction expected to be complete by early January 2012.

The new bridge and realigned stop banks will remove a major constriction in the Oroua River, which will significantly reduce the potential for flooding such as occurred in February 2004.

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