Heavy vehicles test soundness of Ashburton bridge

Testing of the Ashburton River bridge to see if it can safely reopen to heavy vehicles is now underway after a delay this morning.

The Transport Agency said about 20 people had been working on the Ashburton Bridge today.

Its South Canterbury road maintenance manager John Keenan said a crew was in the river pulling out the flood debris that had undermined one of the piers.

"It's the debris that doesn't help with what's going on with the river flow, that's what's undermined one of the piers so we're trying to clear that debris out while we can," he said.

An RNZ reporter who is at the scene said light vehicles up to three and a half tons were allowed to cross the bridge earlier in the day.

This meant people living in the south of Ashburton could get to their workplaces and buy supplies.

The bridge closed around 11am for a second lot of stress testing.

Rather than placing concrete weights with a crane on the bridge, as engineers did last night, a convoy of six pickup trucks has begun crossing the bridge.

The trucks are loaded with shingle and their journey is being closely watched by local people.

There are two detour routes available, one inland for heavy vehicles and one towards the coast for cars and other light vehicles.

An RNZ reporter who has travelled along the Arundel-Rakaia Gorge Road this morning experienced delays with a large number of trucks using the route.

Earlier this week some truck drivers had to make arduous journeys to detour Ashburton to get to the lower South Island.

Among them was Dave Bassford who had to deliver Meadow Fresh milk in his 44-ton rig from Christchurch to Invercargill and use roads along the West Coast making it twice as long.

At times he could only travel around 15km/h up some hills.

He said he was thankful there was not much traffic because some of the corners were very sharp.

Bassford said drivers have been abused for not getting supplies through but nature is nature.

Meanwhile, the weather is fine across Canterbury today as the cleanup continues after the days of heavy rain, but rivers remain swollen as the floodwaters slowly recede.

A number of roads remain closed across the region with State Highway 1 closed at Hinds due to flooding, and State Highway 73 between Springfield and Castle Hill closed due to flooding and slips.

Around 17 roads are closed in the Mid-Canterbury region.

There are also multiple local road closures in Timaru, Selwyn and Hurunui but all roads in Christchurch are now open.

It's also the start of a massive cleanup for farmers while in North Canterbury some property owners face the prospect of the possible red zoning of their homes.

The state of local emergency declared by Civil Defence Emergency Management Canterbury remains in place.