Claudelands Bridge
Claudelands Bridge is a dual-lane truss road bridge over the Waikato River, joining Claudelands with Hamilton Central. In 1968 it was converted from the old railway bridge, which had been completed about the end of July 1883. The road bridge was given a Category 2 listing in 1985.
Claudelands Bridge | |
|---|---|
Claudelands rail and road bridges. | |
| Coordinates | 37.784418°S 175.283432°E |
| Carries | 2 lanes of Claudelands Rd |
| Crosses | Waikato River |
| Locale | Hamilton, New Zealand |
| Maintained by | Hamilton City Council |
| Preceded by | Victoria Bridge, Hamilton |
| Followed by | Whitiora Bridge |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Warren truss |
| Material | Steel |
| Total length | 436 feet (133 m) |
| Height | 103 feet (31 m) river bed to road |
| Longest span | 132 feet (40 m) |
| No. of spans | 5 |
| Piers in water | 2 x 3 (until 1906 2 x 2) |
| Clearance below | 82 feet (25 m) |
| History | |
| Designer | Office of John Blackett |
| Construction start | 1880 |
| Opened | 1883 rail bridge, converted to road 1968 |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | 2003 13106 2010 11900 2015 11600 2019 10,800 2020 8,700 2021 8,500 2022 8,000 |
| Designated | 5 September 1985 |
| Reference no. | 4201 |
| Location | |
Vehicle use has declined in recent years, but it is the second busiest CBD route for cyclists, with 135 in peak hours in 2009 and a rising trend. To make the bridge safer for the 600 cyclists a day, sharrows were added to the lane markings in 2019. Buses to Rototuna and route 11 cross the bridge.
A new railway bridge, opened on 19 September 1964, a few metres downstream, replaced the old with a 7-span, 143 m (469 ft) pre-stressed concrete box girder bridge. The spans are supported by reinforced concrete piers, resting on in-situ cast piles. The bridge, built by Wilkinson and Davies Construction Co Ltd (involved in a 1959 contract law case and deregistered in 1967), is about 20 ft (6.1 m) lower than the road bridge, being 18 m (59 ft) above the normal river level. It was the first bridge in the country to be stressed with a 100-ton Freyssinet cable.