A week of work was lost on the Empire Bridge construction due to workers dealing with bad weather, says contractor Land Holdings’ representative John Batty.

However, Batty said the projected finish date for the bridge was still around the original time of May this year.

He said Land Holdings would remain onsite to work on other aspects of the project after the bridge was operational.

At the moment precast beams for the bridge are being placed.

Batty said every three days Land Holdings would check the foundations and deck of the temporary bridge.

The original Empire Bridge was constructed in the 1920s by the Government of New Zealand, since then, only the bridge deck was replaced by the Ministry of Works in the 1980s.

Minor remedial works were carried out underneath the bridge in 2018, but no major maintenance works took place since its construction.