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Otira viaduct

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Otira viaduct

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The State Highway 73 winds its way high through the huge mountains of the Southern Alps crossing an old landslide path. This piece of the road was always prone to rockfall, snow avalanches and landslides.

It was decided that a new section of road was needed to make State Highway 73 safer and easier to maintain. Roading engineers decided the best and safest way to get past this unstable place in the mountains was to build an long, unusual type of bridge, the Otira Viaduct!

The construction of the Otira Viaduct was part of a NZ$25 million dollar state highway project by Transit New Zealand on the west coast of New Zealand

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History
The first foundations for the Otira Viaduct were laid in January 1998 and the first cars drove over in November 1999. The cold and wet weather of the mountains in winter made the job very hard for those building the viaduct. Sadly one of the construction team was killed in an accident while building the Otira Viaduct

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Location

State Highway 73
Arthur's Pass Selwyn
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