Significant Quarterly Maintenance in April Should Ease Community Concerns About Pekatahi Bridge

East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick said the community is "rightly concerned about the state of the Pekatahi Bridge," as the existing bridge deck deteriorates but significant maintenance is coming.

Kirkpatrick recently asked for community stories about the bridge following continued outrage at the bridge deck. 

"There are boards missing and bits and pieces going around the place, so we need to make sure that people understand there is going to be some significant work to be done where those boards will be removed and the steel plate surfaces will be put on the bridge." 

Concerns and frustration about damage to cars from using the bridge is understandable, but improvement will be coming in the next quarterly maintenance she said. 

"I have been very clear with NZTA that they need to ensure the state of that bridge is maintained throughout the time before the new bridge is operational." 

"There will be a lot of work done on it in the April school holidays and that's where we're at at the moment."

"So the sooner we can get to April and get that maintenance done that will see the deck replaced with the steel deck that will make a big difference for people," she said. 

Last week, NZTA Bay of Plenty Area Manager for Maintenance and Operations Sandra King said NZTA would discuss if the steel plates are the correct long term solution for the bridge. 

"Meetings will be held this week to decide what solution can be put in place to make travel safe and to avoid quarterly closures," she said. 

King said, the steel plates mentioned by the Transport Minister have been procured, but the cost and disruption of installing them need to be weighed up.  

This week NZTA said its carrying out weekly inspections and any subsequent urgent repairs in between our current quarterly closures. 

No update was provided about the steel deck. 

Some community members have taken the issue into their own hands. 

Local Mawera Karetai said she reopened a ten year old petition to hasten delivery of the new bridge.   

"We need a two-lane bridge, we need it for community safety, we need it for freight and we need it because life is hard enough without wrecking people's tyres," she said. 

Since opening the petition last week, Karetai said around 300 people have signed it. 

Kirkpatrick said she supports local petitions but in this case "we have the confirmation that Pekatahi Bridge will be replaced with a two lane bridge," and a timeline. 

Design and landownership discussions will be taking place this year and bridge construction will begin next year. 

"Hopefully it will not take as long as we originally thought and it will be open as quickly as possible, but I don't think that we can speed that up."

Pressure from local councillors and Mayors will ensure the project will be kept in the forefront of people's mind and keep pressure on delivery.