Work to reopen Rangitata rail bridge almost complete

Work to reopen a piece of critical rail infrastructure in the South Island is almost complete.

The Rangitata rail bridge provides a freight-only connection linking Invercargill, Dunedin, and Christchurch. It has been out of action since a pier was washed away in bad weather earlier this month.

Contractors on site are working quickly to get freight operations back up and running.

"This has been a huge task for a really big team, and it's been super exciting seeing what they've done," KiwiRail chief infrastructure officer André Lovatt said.

A temporary structure has been built in less than a fortnight.

"The spans are re-instated, we've got temporary work supporting the bridge, and we've got rail going on because that got all horribly bent out of shape," Lovatt said.

Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown was complimentary of the timeline.

"Full credit to KiwiRail for getting on in there and getting it done," he said.

One of the 34 piers was washed away in flooding on April 12.

Lovatt said there was a lot of water flowing.

"Every single minute, we had roughly 30 Olympic swimming pools of water coming through here [the riverbed]."

Once the water receded, contractors had to divert river flow away from the affected area so that the work could begin.

Normally, eight freight trains travel across the bridge every day and five each weekend. While it's out of action, freight is being moved by road between Ashburton and Timaru, which is about 50km.

Brown said the extra traffic hasn't been too disruptive.

"It worked well in this situation but let's not try and repeat it" he said.

Leaders in the region are now calling on the Government to prepare for the future.

"What it did highlight was the ageing infrastructure in mid- and south Canterbury. We need to get in there and have a look at the infrastructure and see whether it can stand up to these weather events and, if not, make it durable so we're not disrupted again," Brown said.

Final testing on the rail bridge, with its temporary fix, will be done tomorrow morning ahead of the line reopening.

"Once trains are back running, we start immediately on the permanent works, which will replicate what we have in the existing piers," Lovatt said.

Freight will keep moving during that work, which is expected to take 10 to 12 weeks.

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