Rakaia Bridge

Rakaia Bridge
Rakaia Bridge (State Highway 1) is New Zealand's longest road bridge
Coordinates	43°44′38″S 172°02′16″E / 43.7440°S 172.0378°E / -43.7440; 172.0378
Carries	road traffic
Crosses	Rakaia River
Locale	Canterbury
Other name(s)	Rakaia Road Bridge
Named for	Maori name of the river
Owner	NZ Transport Agency
Characteristics
Design	simply supported reinforced concrete spans
Material	Concrete
Total length	1,756 m (5,762 ft)
Width	6.2 m (20.5 ft)
No. of spans	144
No. of lanes	Two (one in each direction)
History
Designer	Public Works Department
Constructed by	Rope Construction
Construction start	March 1937
Inaugurated	25 March 1939
Statistics
Daily traffic	13,652 (2019)[1]
Location

The Rakaia Bridge is New Zealand's longest road bridge and crosses the Rakaia River, one of Canterbury's large braided rivers. The present bridge was opened in 1939 and replaced an earlier combined road and rail bridge from 1873. The present road bridge is just downstream from the rail bridge and forms part of State Highway 1.