Transit Regional Office Auckland

6 August 2004

Auckland Harbour Bridge gets its flags back

The flags are flying above the Auckland Harbour Bridge once more. Some five months after removing the original flagpoles for safety reasons, Transit has installed two new strengthened poles on the arches of the bridge. Transit removed both original flagpoles from the bridge after one of them broke in extraordinarily high winds in February.

Regional Manager, Wayne McDonald, says the new flagpoles are significantly stronger than the original poles as they have been designed with an internal steel spigot to enable them to endure the strongest winds, which regularly reach above 170 kilometres per hour at the top of the Harbour Bridge. “Auckland is in the path of sub tropical cyclones which regularly sweep down and buffet the city with incredibly strong winds,” says Mr McDonald

“To make doubly sure that the flagpoles will do the job, we had their design peer reviewed by the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Auckland,” he says.

“We are delighted to have the flags up and proudly flying over the bridge once again. There’s no doubt that Aucklanders prefer to have their bridge ‘dressed’ up with flags and we are receiving many calls from the public telling us how happy they are to see them again,” he says.

ENDS

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