Rakaia Bridge — Local services in Canterbury

It's a concrete road bridge. It goes across a braided shingle river. So most of the time it's mostly shingle river bed you see. It is 1.8 km long or 1 mile & 1 tenth if you're old school or an American. When the river is running from bank to bank it's very impressive. Scarily so sometimes.

A safety tip when crossing the bridge. This bridge is very busy, and is so long and has raised sides. So it feels a lot narrower than it is. Some drivers can, as a result, steer their vehicles into the bridge sides/railings as a result. You can see evidence of this in old and new damage to the concrete railings along the bridge.

Do take care, keep left and if needed slow down, when on the bridge. If you feel while crossing, that the bridge sides are closing in on you, focus your eyes straight ahead to the vehicle in front or the end of the bridge. And you'll get across ok.

And note during early mornings and evenings when the sun is at a low angle in the sky, the sun can shine right into your eyes - or equally - into the eyes of the drivers coming the other way.

So when crossing if its daytime use your sun visor to block/minimize the sunlight before getting onto the bridge to avoid the sun strike - it can be quite dangerous to everyone when you can't...

Cycling over this one is not advised. Don't know why it's allowed to be honest. Its a VERY narrow bridge on a very BUSY highway. I was blocking the highway for all 2km. There is NO place to stop and let cars pass...

See where other vehicles have hit the slatted concrete sides? Carefully drive across the long narrow bridge. Bonus points if your passengers can hold their breath...