WORK HELD UP.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 295, 24 September 1938, Page 11

WORK HELD UP.

STEEL DELIVERIES DELAYED. RAKAIA RAILWAY BRIDGE. Because delivery of steel ordered from England lias been delayed, the construction of the railway bridge over the Rakaia. River has been held up and it is likely that the work will not be completed till early in 1940, according to a statement made by the Minister for Railways (the Hon.fD. G. Sullivan) who passed through Ashburton yesterday. The bridge, which will cost about £BO,OOO, will consist of 143 40-foot steel girder spans, supported on concrete piers, each resting on a foundation of reinforced concrete piles. The piles are 30 feet long and are being driven about 25 feet into the shingle river-bed. In some places the driving is exceedingly hard, and it lias been found necessary at times to cfs’ill a pipe for 15 or 20 feet, below the lied level, through which to a charge of dynamite to enable the piles to penetrate. . Steel to be used will weigh 13UU tons, and the whole job will require more than 4500 cubic yards of concrete The cement used will total approximately 1050 tons, all of New Zealand manufacture. The concrete aggregates are being taken from the river-bed by a drag-line scoop discharging into a crushing and, sciceiling plant. There will be 113G_ concrete piles in the bridge; <O4 of these have been driven to date. Seventy-one of the total of 144- piers have been completed. The old wooden bridge, built in the early ’seventies in 20-foot- spans of timber beams supported on timber pile piers, was originally 4500 feet long; but in 1882, after a, series of troubles with wash-outs and erosions, the structure was lengthened to 6000 feet. The extension of 1500 feet replaced the approach embankment at the southern end.