HOBSON ST. BRIDGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 117, 20 May 1942, Page 6

HOBSON ST. BRIDGE

REASON FOR THE NOTICE

Commenting upon statements made by a speaker at a meeting of the Ratepayers' Association with reference to the alleged danger of the Hobson Street suspension bridge and the erection of a notice warning that the maximum safe loading is twelve persons, the City Engineer (Mr. Luke) said today that the bridge had been carefully examined and his officers had also discussed the question of its safety with an officer of the Public Works Department. The consensus of opinion was that the bridge is not unsound and that it is well capable of carrying a reasonable number of. people, but obviously no bridge of that type would stand up to a load double or treble what it was originally designed to take. For a

dozen people the structure was perfectly sound, and it was safe also for probably a considerably larger number than twelve, but it was not safe for a hundred or more. The purpose of erecting notices was to give to warders whose duty it would be to control the movement of people some clear authority upon which to act in preventing undue numbers from crowding on to the decking.