Northland’s State Highway 15, or Mangakahia Road, will be closed at the Twin Bridges for two nights later this month.
Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0 / russellstreet

Northland motorists are being warned State Highway 15 will be closed for essential bridge repairs for two nights this month with no local detour possible.

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said the Twin Bridges, about 60 kilometres northwest of Whangārei, would be closed from 7.30pm to 5am on Thursday, 26 October and Friday, 27 October.

No detour was possible on local roads when State Highway 15, or Mangakahia Road, was closed.

Motorists travelling between Whangārei and Kaikohe on those nights would need to use State Highway 1 instead or drive around the west coast on State Highways 14 and 12.

Waka Kotahi said emergency services would be able to get through.

The agency said guard rail fixings on the underside of the bridge had to be repaired, a job requiring a specialist truck and mobile platform that occupied the full width of the bridge.

The Twin Bridges are not a pair of parallel river crossings but an unusual T-junction bridge built over the confluence of the Mangakahia and Awarua Rivers.