Culvert collapse at Ravensbourne, SH88, Port Chalmers highway, several services involved in making highway safe

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency’s Coastal Otago highway maintenance team has been busy at Ravensbourne for the past two days making safe a collapsed culvert under the highway at the Tekapo St/ SH88 intersection.

The work will take at least a week or more to repair, says Waka Kotahi Senior Network Manager Chris Harris. People need to build in extra time for the Port Chalmers highway journey as it will be one-way at Tekapo St.

Crews noticed the culvert beginning to slump in recent days and moved to make the highway single lane yesterday and investigate the cause. The harbour-side lane was fully closed and services (including a high voltage electricity cable, pressurised wastewater pipe and communications ducts) have had to be carefully managed, says Mr Harris.

“There was a significant void the size of a small car under the highway caused by water getting through and around a break in the culvert. We have backfilled that void as a short-term measure and are actively managing the key utility services with input from Delta, Aurora and Dunedin City Council. The power supply has been re-routed to ensure residents and businesses are not affected.

“We need to secure the retaining crib wall today and complete the back-filling. The highway will remain as one-lane with manual traffic control at peak hours and traffic signals the rest of the time,” says Mr Harris.

“The site will be monitored throughout the weekend and crews will be back on deck Monday for a full and fairly significant repair. People will need to build in extra time for a week or more. We appreciate everyone’s patience, slowing down and taking care at this site.”

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