NZ Transport Agency has provided an update on the second Ashburton Bridge and connecting road project:

28 November 2025

The trial piling work for the second Ashburton bridge has been completed.

Thank you for your patience while this work was carried out. We’re sorry it took longer than expected, the initial dates shifted due to weather and the later arrival of the crane, and the team also carried out extra testing to help refine the bridge design.

While this provided valuable information for the project team, it did mean the work ran longer than first planned.

Most of the piling equipment will be packed up this week and the fences moved back to allow two lane access.

We’ve opted to leave part of the gravel area fenced off so we can store some piling equipment on-site until it’s needed again next year.

Compaction trial

Next on the ‘to do’ list is a compaction trial.

It’s a way of checking how well gravel or soil can be packed down to form a strong, stable base. By compacting test layers and measuring how dense they get, engineers can see if the material is suitable for building foundations and roadbeds. In simple terms, it’s like stamping down sand in a bucket to make sure it’s firm enough to hold weight, only on a much bigger scale.

We’ll be testing gravel from the northern part of the river to see if we can use it in the project, without needing to modify it. We’ll update you on this and the results from the trial pile shortly.

We’re looking for a suitable location away from the urban area for this work.

Survey work and potholing continues

Our design team is continuing investigations to support the next stage of work.

Over the coming weeks you may see surveyors along the alignment and crews carrying out potholing in some areas. Potholing means digging small test holes to safely locate underground services like power, internet, water, and phone lines.

These checks help us confirm exactly where utilities are so we can plan work more efficiently.

We’ll be back with more news in December.