Announcements

Amendment 4 to the 3^rd edition of the Waka Kotahi Bridge manual has been drafted. The majority of the changes being proposed are technical in nature, conform to appropriate best practice in New Zealand and overseas and will have a generally neutral cost implication. There are however some changes that will have an effect on the cost of building or maintaining bridges and other highway structures.

The amendment has been developed in conjunction with the industry and is offered here for comment.

Key updates, the first two of which are the most significant, are:

• evaluation of bridges and culverts amended with the introduction of updated evaluation live load models (reference vehicles and axle groups)
• addendums added to make interim provisions where significant changes in seismic hazard from previous requirements have been identified through recent research
• combination of load effects amended, generally creating revised and new load combinations using existing load factors
• steel fatigue design amended with new load model and design procedures
• footway loading amended to reduce excessive conservatism in some elements of the loading
• waterway design provisions amended extensively with updated key reference documents
• introduction to low-damage seismic design added
• bridge barrier provisions for cyclists updated.

If you would like to review the draft documents and make a comment, or for information about the Bridge manual in general, please email [email protected] or get in touch with Nigel Lloyd ([email protected] or 021 729 341). Comments need to be provided before 7 April 2022.