Crane crashes into tunnel

A truck driver towing a crane has crashed into a tunnel, causing the closure of State Highway 1 south of Kaiko¯ura.

The Hiab – a truck with a crane attached to the deck – crashed at the entrance of the Parititahi Tunnel before 9am on Wednesday morning, closing the highway between Peketa and Goose Bay.

A Christchurch Transport Operations Centre (CTOC) spokeswoman said the road would remain closed until 4.30pm (it would then close at the normal time of 8.30pm and reopen at 7am on Thursday).

NZ Transport Agency spokes- woman Frances Adank said the crane was not stuck in the tunnel, but had ‘‘hit the outside’’.

She said the closure was so contractors could remove loose rock before bolting and shotcreting – using concrete spray – to stabilise the tunnel.

‘‘There was an existing crack and it has made it worse.’’

The CTOC spokeswoman said in the meantime, southbound traffic from Blenheim should take SH63, SH6, SH65 and SH7 to get back onto SH1 at Waipara.

Northbound traffic travel the reverse route.

Adank said all heavy vehicles were encouraged to use the Lewis Pass route (SH7) while the repair work was completed. should

SH1 north of Kaiko¯ura and the Inland Rd (Route 70) was not well suited to large trucks.

North Canterbury Transport Infrastructure Recovery contractors are currently completing work to increase the height of the tunnels.

Two sets of tunnels on the coastal route are set to gain 300 millimetres in height as part of repair work following the November 2016 earthquake.

The tunnels had a clearance of 4.3 metres, which would become 4.6m.

Their 3.5m width would stay the same.

The increased height was good news for some truckers although Road Transport Forum NZ chief executive Ken Shirley said the current clearance height was not sufficient.

‘‘If you’ve got less than 200mm clearance and if you’ve pumped your tyres up full and you have a bit of a bounce you would rise and fall on your springs about 200mm and scrape the top of the tunnel, so moving that out by an additional 300mm is a good move and certainly supported by our industry,’’ Shirley said.

But the increase in height would not be enough for all trucks, NZ Heavy Haulage Association chief executive Jonathan BhanaThomson said.

Oversize vehicles would still have to travel the long way, he said.

Marlborough District Council operations and maintenance engineer Stephen Rooney