New signage has been erected after the country's most-struck rail bridge claimed yet another victim, this time slicing the roof off a campervan driving beneath the low-clearance structure.
But there are doubts the extra signage will stop the regular crashes into what KiwiRail has identified as the most hit the rail bridge in the country, with a clearance height of 2.39m.
Ashburton District councillor Phill Hooper, who lives in Tinwald, said he has heard plenty of scepticism about the extra signage.
"Most locals I have spoken to are not confident the new signs will stop viaduct strikes."
Hooper agreed with the many locals suggesting a gantry.
"I would like to see a hanging bar between two bars, straddling the road, that over height vehicles would hit, like you see in parking building entrances."
The council has previously investigated a gantry, with estimates, based on the concept rather than a design, of $20,000 per gantry.
Hooper baulked at the cost and suggested it should be co-funded by council and KiwiRail, as the rail bridge was a KiwiRail asset and the road under it was council jurisdiction.
Council roading manager Mark Chamberlain also sounded doubtful of the additional measures when, at the activity briefing on January 28, he informed councillors that the additional signage and changing the intersection from a give-way to a stop sign "probably won't" stop everyone.
The changes follow the latest incident when a campervan had its roof ripped off attempting to pass under the viaduct.
It had only been reopened for just over a month following majors repairs after being hit by an excavator towed on a trailer in July.
That incident cracked the wooden overhead impact beam, forcing the closure until it was upgraded with a new steel impact beam.
It has already been tested, with the vehicle coming off second best.
The council, as the road controlling, has moved to boost the preventative measures.
Cr Julie Moffett asked that, if the issues continue, will the council consider closing the viaduct to traffic, making cyclist and pedestrian only.
Chamberlain said its "always an option".
"It would have to be a report to come to council and probably consulted."
Chief executive Hamish Riach said historically the community has been "clear in its feedback that it should stay open".
He said NZTA's original plan for the Tinwald upgrade, which added lights at the SH1-Laghmor Road-Agnes Street intersection, was to reduce the viaduct to left out onto SH1 only.
"The local community objected vigorously and, in the end, NZTA and ourselves went back to leaving it open."
Chamberlain said that as well as the community feedback another issue around any closure at the viaduct is the increase in traffic at the "Compton's crossing" further along Melcombe Steet.
Had Melcombe Street's access been reduced or closed, that rail crossing would have required an upgrade as well "and nobody had any funding for that as well".
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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