Work to divert river for bridge work almost done
Preparation work which will divert river flow and enable repairs to the damaged Rangitata River rail bridge should be completed this week, KiwiRail says.
The rail bridge was damaged by floodwaters last week, with one of 34 concrete piers holding up the 610 metre long bridge washed away.
Since then, all train movements across the bridge have been suspended.
KiwiRail chief infrastructure officer André Lovatt said work to prepare the site was expected to be completed by Thursday.
Once the river had been diverted away from the repair site, contractors would be working to put temporary supports in place, Lovatt said.
Freight trains would be able to use the bridge once those had been installed. A permanent replacement of the missing pier would be carried out once the bridge was operational again, he said.
It is not known exactly what caused the pier to be wiped out, and Lovatt said there was no indication it was compromised in earlier checks.
“The pier could have been hit by a heavy object travelling down the river. Wear and tear would not have caused the sudden collapse of a large concrete pier.”
He said no damage had been found on any other piers or spans, and they hoped to get a better idea of what may have caused the damage once the river flow had been diverted away.
“Track inspections are done daily, and an inspection was done across the bridge on Friday morning, before the pier was washed away.”
KiwiRail learnt of the damage after reports from members of the public around 11am on Friday.
“A freight train was not scheduled to travel over the bridge until after 1pm. This and later services were cancelled.”
Rail services were still able to operate from the south to Timaru and from the north to Ashburton. Connecting rail freight was being managed using road bridging operations, Lovatt said.