TAURANGA HARBOUR LINK - STAGE TWO, BAY OF PLENTY
Client: New Zealand Transport Agency
Completion Date: December 2009
Team:
URS was employed by Fletcher Construction as lead designer in a design and construction contract for this NZTA project. The project involved construction of a duplicate harbour bridge adjacent to the existing structure and a new elevated viaduct to link the existing expressways. The scope included these two new major bridges and two minor bridges, refurbishing the existing Harbour Bridge, new roads, road widening and significant civil works.
The duplicate Tauranga Harbour Bridge is a 460m long incrementally launched pre-stressed concrete box girder bridge founded on single bored piles. The bridge runs parallel to the existing Harbour Bridge over the upper reaches of Tauranga Harbour. Leading to the Harbour Bridge, on the Tauranga side, is the Chapel Street Viaduct. This is a 550m long super-tee girder bridge that spans over industrial land.
Significant design challenges on this project were mitigation of effects of seismic induced liquefaction, very deep piles and sequencing of the construction to maintain traffic flows on existing roads during construction.
The project included several innovative features including drilling piles under bentonite, self-compacting concrete used on the bridge girders and seismic lock up devices to efficiently distribute seismic loads.
