The Balclutha Road Bridge, which spans the Clutha River in Balclutha,

South Otago South Otago lies in the south east of the South Island of New Zealand. As the name suggests, it forms the southernmost part of the geographical region of Otago. The exact definition of the area designated as South Otago is imprecise, as the area is ...

, New Zealand, is one of the best-known road bridges in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. The bridge is often simply known as "The Clutha Bridge", despite the fact that there are numerous bridges across the country's second longest river. Built between 1933 and 1935, this

bowstring bridge A tied-arch bridge is an arch bridge in which the outward horizontal forces of the arch(es) caused by tension at the arch ends to a foundation are countered by equal tension of its own gravity plus any element of the total deck structure such grea ...

was designed by W. L. Newnham to be earthquake and flood resistant, thereby safeguarding it against the two most common natural disasters to occur in southern New Zealand. The bridge is built from reinforced concrete, with six parabolic curved spans, each of 36.6 metres in length, and a total bridge length of 244.1 metres. A carriageway of 6.7 metres width is flanked on either side by a footpath of 1.4 metres; its total width is 11.8 metres. The bridge carries the South Island's principal highway,

State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbere ...

on its route between

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

and

Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

. The bridge is the third road bridge to stand at or close to this spot. The first, constructed in 1868, was destroyed in massive floods ten years later when a bridge situated upstream at Beaumont was swept downriver and collided with it. A second bridge was constructed in 1881, but was unsuitable for the needs of motorised transport and was eventually replaced by the current structure. On 13 December 1990 the Balclutha Road Bridge was classified as a Category I Historic Place by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Another bridge, the Balclutha Rail Bridge, stands several hundred metres downstream.

References

{{coord, -46.235918, 169.744998, display=title Bridges completed in 1935 Bridges over the Clutha River / Mata-Au Concrete bridges in New Zealand Southern Scenic Route Tied arch bridges Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in Otago Balclutha, New Zealand State Highway 1 (New Zealand) 1930s architecture in New Zealand