Bridge Blown Up

The Rotokautuku Bridge, which carried the East Coast highway across the Waiapu River near Ruatoria, was dismantled recently in spectacular fashion.

The wooden trusses were blown clear of their supporting concrete piers by strategically placed explosives, to fall into the shingle river bed for dismantling.

The original piles were "topped" and capped with a modified concrete design and are to hold a new Callender-Hamilton steel truss structure.