New Zealand's Bridges: Ferrymead Bridge across the Heathcote River in Christchurch

March 2011 (-43.559 Degrees, 172.710 Degrees) Ferrymead Bridge

The Ferrymead Bridge crosses the Heathcote River just above the Avon-Heathcote Estuary. It is a three span continuous haunched T-girder bridge on columns without bent caps (the tops of the columns are pinned to diaphragms). The bridge is considered a lifeline because it carries 30,000 vehicles a day (as well as water, wastewater, phone, and electricity) into the suburbs up on the hills looking out onto the Estuary and the Pacific Ocean. The bridge was being widened and strengthened when the February 2011 earthquake occurred, resulting in damage to the existing columns and to the shoring (it was apparently damaged and closed again after the June 2011 earthquake). 

An interesting feature of the widening is the very deep beam (in the foreground) that was used to support the end of the bridge.


New Zealand's Bridges: Ferrymead Bridge across the Heathcote River in Christchurch by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.