AUCKLAND HARBOUR BRIDGE PROPOSAL

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 10378, 16 May 1930, Page 3

AUCKLAND HARBOUR BRIDGE PROPOSAL

Commissioners Report to Government* PREMATURE AND COSTLY. Messrs James Marchbanks, general manager and chief engineer of the Wellington Harbour Board; F. W. Furkert, engineer-in-chief. Public Works Department, and Captain Coll. McDonald, retired master mariner and a member of the Otago Harbour Board, the Commissioners who inquired into the Auckland harbour bridge proposal, have submitted their report to the Government. In regard to the necessity or otherwise for the bridge the Commissioners state: — "After careful consideration of all the evidence and after investigations made in the district your commissioners are of the opinion that the time for the erection of a bridge across the Waitemata Harbour will not arrive in less than twenty years, though it might be advisable in say ten years to have the position reviewed again." The report recommends the adoption of the Fanshawe Street exten-sion-Stokes Point, Northcote site, with causeways across Shoal Bay and Nsratarinera Bav.

As to cost, the commissioners ;; say: "We estimate the cost of the bridge on the recommended site, together with the causeways and the bridges therein to allow free tidal flow into Shoal Bay and Ngataringa Bay, at £1,956,000. The fixed charges based on interest at 5& per cent., sinking fund h per cent., and depreciation maintenance and operation 1J per cent., amount on a round figure of two million pounds to £150,000 per annum." "The total length of the recommended bridge is 4740 ft in the main structure, together with 1700 ft of bridging across Shoal Bay and. NgaI taringa Bay in connection with the causeway. The total length of the works from the present end' of Fanshawe Street to the proposed junction with the Devonport roading opposite Stanley Bay wharf is 19,840 ft.'»