More lanes on the Auckland Harbour Bridge will close on Saturday night while a permanent fix is put in place.
The bridge was damaged in September when 127km/h winds caused a truck to crash. Since then a temporary fix has been put in place, allowing three lanes to be open in each direction.
But this week fabricators in Whangarei have been working on a permanent fix - a new 22.7 metre strut.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) said all going well, and depending on weather conditions, the new strut will be installed on Saturday night.
As a result of the work, one southbound and one northbound lane on the Harbour Bridge will close from 5pm on Saturday.
Then from 9pm, all southbound lanes will close and reopen midmorning Sunday. Southbound onramps Esmonde Road and Onewa Road will be closed and two northbound lanes over the bridge will remain open.
NZTA said congestion is expected and Aucklanders need to plan ahead and use the Western Ring Route.
"We understand this will cause some inconvenience, but we need to close lanes to allow our engineers to safely carry out their work," said general manager of transport services, Brett Gliddon.
"If all goes well with the installation on Saturday night, further closures will be needed on other nights next week to carry out the all-important tensioning work."
If all goes to plan the bridge will be open to all eight lanes by the end of next week.
This comes after significant delays for Auckland motorists from the reduced lanes, and also strong winds closing the bridge.
But on Thursday morning the main issues on Auckland motorways involved breakdowns and crashes.
There was also a gravel spill on the northern motorway between Orewa and Puhio, which is being cleared.
