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Calls are being made for a West Coast Road bridge to be repaired fully before a serious accident occurs.
The single-lane wooden bridge just north of Parker Road at Makarau should be sealed with bitumen, but for more than a year has had exposed planks and screws, and several large holes in the surface.
According to local motorists, it is uneven and bumpy at best, dangerously slippery when wet and “a death trap” for motorcyclists.
Makarau resident Steven Law has been reporting the problems to Auckland Transport (AT) for several months, but says little has been done, despite assurances that the problems would be fixed.
“The only thing that was done was two attempts to put Coldmix in a hole,” he said. “No planks have been replaced and no nails or screws replaced. I am surprised that a heavy metal mesh was not put down to protect both bridge and vehicles.”
Rodney Local Board member Geoff Upson has also been drawing attention to the state of the bridge for the last two years.
“This bridge is on a corner, so vehicles have sideways momentum when entering the bridge when traveling east,” he said.
“My opinion is that it’s extremely dangerous having exposed timber, due to how slippery wet wood is.”
Both Upson and Law were told by AT that design and investigation work for the bridge had been completed by the end of last year and construction was due to begin last month, although nothing had been started by last Wednesday, February 28.
However, an AT spokesperson told Mahurangi Matters that while the design had been finished, construction would only “likely happen before the end of the financial year”.
Upson commented that, as the Auckland Council financial year ran from July to June, AT had apparently given themselves an extra four months to get the job done.
However, he received an update last weekend to say AT was currently developing a traffic management plan and construction was expected to begin in April, not just on the bridge near Parker Road, known as Glennie’s Bridge, but on a second single-lane bridge just north of there that has also lost several large sections of wood in recent months.
