Traffic stopped in the Cromwell Gorge yesterday as a helicopter was used to transport pieces of a bridge across the lake.

Cars were stopped, cameras were clicking, as hand rails and two large beams were choppered across the lake to form a bridge which is to be part of the Lake Dunstan Trail.

Central Otago Queenstown Trails Network Trust executive trustee Janeen Wood explained this was only the start of helicopter activity people would see in the area.

“Breens are helicoptering in the steelwork for this, the third bridge they’ve made for us.

“It’s an 18 metre long bridge, needed to cover a gully.”

Janeen said there is to be a bolt-on bridge near the Cairnmuir slide, which will be over 100 metres long once constructed. From there, the track had been formed up the gully with a zig-zag portion behind the protruding rockface. Where the track came down again to join up with the existing four wheel drive track, a bridge was needed to cross a gully – and that was the reason for yesterday’s spectacle.

“We’ve utilised most of the existing four wheel drive track that Cairnmuir Station had in place, and now it’s a matter of linking the pieces together.”

Janeen said the section of track from Cromwell to Clyde required a number of bridges to be built, including bolt-on bluff bridges, which would each be unique to the rock structure found at that point.

Now that a lot of the access had been completed, it was a matter of getting structures in place.

Special care is being taken to carefully follow the profile of rock faces, making each of the bolt-on bridges unique.

“The one at Butchers Drive has been completed, there’s the Bannockburn Bridge being led by Council, there’s the one around Bannockburn Inlet.

“There’s Hartley and Reilly bridges, the long bridge at Pickaxe Bluff which will need overhead bracing, this bridge being constructed now, the Specularite suspension bridge, and more bolt-on bridges in the area of trail that hasn’t been done yet, just before Halfway Hut – probably ten different bridges in total along the length.”

Janeen said with helicopter businesses suffering due to the downturn in tourism activity, companies were no longer so busy and were looking at ways to work with the Lake Dunstan Trail project.

“It’s a good thing for everyone; local companies get work and the project moves faster.”

The next planned helicopter lift would be to transport gravel over to the trail. Timing of which, Janeen said, was dependent on weather – wet gravel would be too heavy to lift.

Even with the help of helicopters, however, Janeen said the full length of the trail would still not be open until summer, once code of compliance was signed off.

Photos Mary Hinsen