Historic Bridge repaint reaches the finish line

After more than a year of hard work, the repainting and maintenance work on the Victoria Street Bridge in Cambridge wrapped up last week.

The final touches included replacing two cross braces beneath the bridge, and touching up the paint on the handrails above.

Work on the historic bridge has been underway since late 2022, and Waipā District Council Service Delivery group manager Dawn Inglis says Council is absolutely thrilled with how the project has progressed.

“There were a number of tricky elements to this job, and the team have worked really hard with one of the biggest achievements being that throughout the project we never closed the bridge.

“We fully anticipated that a bridge closure would be needed, but our team were able to use innovative ways to carry out the more difficult parts of the work without causing any disruption. It truly is a great result.”

The repaint is expected to last around 20 – 25 years, and will protect the steel from corrosive elements such as weather and pigeon poo.

“The team have applied more than 2,000 litres of special corrosion-resistant paint, used more than 7,000 individual scaffolding components, including bars, bolts and planks, and it took 30 tonnes of grit-sand to blast off the old paint and rust. It’s been a mammoth effort.

“With the painting complete, all that remains is to remove the scaffolding. This will be taken down over the next month by the contractor, and moved on to their next project by mid-December.”

More information about the work is available at waipadc.govt.nz/victoriastreetbridge.