Tamavua-i-Wai Bridge to be closed for 1 hour tomorrow morning

The Fiji Roads Authority is advising people that the Tamavua‑i‑Wai Bridge will be closed to traffic for 1 hour from 2am to 3am tomorrow morning.

This is to enable the setup of a work platform that will allow the contractor to access and start repairs on the damaged section of the bridge.

FRA confirms that they will only open the bridge in that hour in case of a medical or fire emergency.

Traffic at both ends will be allowed through soon after.

The Fiji Roads Authority expects to complete the repair to the bridge by next Wednesday.

Acting Chief Executive Officer, Rory Garland says FRA engineers have been working to finalise the designs for repair to the bridge.

Garland says this was completed this morning and at the same time fabrication of the new section of beam got underway.

He says the complexity of the loading in this area of the bridge means that ‘off the shelf’ steel beams cannot be used.

The contractor has been assembling the platform which will be slung under the bridge. This platform will be transported to the site and installed tonight.

This will allow preparatory works to start tomorrow.

Garland says providing no further problems are identified once the engineers get close‑up access to the structure, the repair should be completed by next Wednesday.

This will allow the second lane to be re‑opened to traffic.

A crack in the steel beam under the bridge was discovered on Wednesday. Following advice from the engineers the FRA had no choice but to close one lane of the bridge and undertake immediate repair.

He says they have been advised that the cause of this crack was most likely due to recent excessive loads from overweight vehicles. This crack was not apparent in the original check on the structure in 2012 and during a more recent check in May 2015.

Garland says other known defects on this bridge were not sufficiently serious to raise any immediate public safety concern.