Police are seeking the driver of a 40-tonne truck which crossed the Victoria Street bridge in Cambridge, which has a weight limit of three tonnes.
The damaged bridge has been closed while its safety is checked today by engineers from the Waipa District Council reports Radio New Zealand
Police northern communications centre, Inspector Kerry Watson, told Radio New Zealand the rails of the bridge were damaged and possibly some of the footpaths.
Watson told Radio New Zealand that because the truck was grossly over the safety limit, the bridge’s structural integrity needs to be checked.
Watson also said police were alerted to the incident by someone who lives near the bridge and officers will try to track down the driver.
The steel bridge runs 38 metres above the Waikato River. It is one of the highest steel bridges of its kind in the world, and the first hinged arched bridge built in Australasia.
It stretches from the residential suburb of Leamington to the central township of Cambridge.
The bridge was built for horses and carts in 1907 and was later given a maximum load of three tonnes, according to Hamilton police Senior Sergeant Andrew O’Reilly.
“It is really for cars only. There are signs all over the bridge with weight and height restrictions,” he says.
