Dart 1 - Remuera Road

The Remuera Road bridge was 80 years old and as part of the Dart 1 rail works needed to be raised and upgraded for future electrification of the lines. The bridge was failing and had been added  to over the years, had no architectural merit, was too low and narrow. Replacement was to be staged to permit constant use of the road and rail.

The scope of work Lowery undertook included:

• Drilling the abutments for ground anchors
• Cutting the deck for demolition
• Cutting the abutments for a new capping beam
• Drilling the abutments to add reinforcing and adding the capping beam

Prior to any works done to the bridge, ground anchors were drilled to support the abutments. A pattern of 200mm diameter holes on two levels at specific angles to avoid anchors clashing were drilled 2m deep.
Using large floor saws the deck was cut laterally to allow sections to be craned off without debris falling onto the rails below.
Once a section of road was removed a wall saw was set up on the abutment and a horizontal cut 700mm deep was formed at the height of the underside of the new capping beam.
When excess abutment was disposed of, 30 x 76mm diameter holes 10m deep were drilled in each abutment and bars grouted in to tie the new to the old sections