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Projected Climate Impacts on the Deterioration of Coastal Railway Bridges in New Zealand
April 14 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm NZST
New Zealand’s coastal railway bridges are increasingly exposed to climate stressors due to climate change. This presentation links climate projections to material specific deterioration mechanisms and discuss how service life can reduce significantly, creating earlier and more frequent maintenance interventions and tougher planning decisions for network reliability.
📆 When: 14 April 2026
🕛 Time: 12 – 1pm (NZT)
💻 Online event
🔗 Register here: https://www.engineeringnz.org/courses-events/event-template/?eventtemplate=4941-projected-climate-impacts-on-the-deterioration-of-®ion=IPENZT
Presenter: Adriano Mohr Bonatto
Cost: Free
New Zealand’s railway network includes over 1,400 operational bridges, many located in coastal or flood-prone regions. These structures are increasingly exposed to climate-related stressors such as rising temperatures, salt-laden winds, extreme rainfall, and sea-level rise. These conditions accelerate material degradation – particularly steel corrosion, concrete carbonation and chloride ingress, and timber decay – posing a direct threat to structural integrity, service life, and operational reliability. This presentation examines how projected climate changes will affect the durability of coastal railway bridges, drawing on material-specific degradation data, climate projections, and case studies.
Presenter Bio:
Adriano Mohr Bonatto is a Senior Bridge and Structures Engineer at KiwiRail. With 15 years of experience in railway infrastructure maintenance and renewal, he specialises in bridge and structural engineering.
Before moving to New Zealand, Adriano led Engineering, Planning, and Asset Management for Structures and Civil assets at Brazil’s largest railway operator, overseeing maintenance and projects across a 12,000 km network that includes more than 3,000 bridges. As he departed Brazil, a bridge was renamed in his honour in recognition of his contributions.
Projected Climate Impacts on the Deterioration of Coastal Railway Bridges in New Zealand