Ashburton's bridge: another weak infrastructure link

Flooding at Ashburton affected both rail and road connections to the lower South Island

Wed, 02 Jun 2021

The closure caused by flood damage of the 90 year-old Ashburton Bridge has this week effectively cut off the lower half of the South Island from the rest of the country.The alternative route takes over ten hours.Ashburton has been talking about a second bridge since 2006. Wouldn’t that have been useful right now?Once again, New Zealand’s vulnerability to weak infrastructure has been thrown into sharp relief.This isn’t the first time that problems with Canterbury bridges have shut down travel and commerce on State Highway One....

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