NEW RAILWAY BRIDGE

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27993, 13 June 1956, Page 8

NEW RAILWAY BRIDGE

PILE DRIVING TO START SOON

MODERN EQUIPMENT TO BE USED

A start wilt be made this week or next week to drive piles for the new railway bridge over the Waimakariri river alongside the Main North road traffic bridge. Yesterday, two bulldozers were working in the river a short distance above the shingle crushing plant on the north bank, building a bank to divert the river so that the contractor can move his equipment out into the middle of the bed. where driving will begin. Since shortly before Christmas, the contractor has been casting 50ft long cast iron tipped reinforced concrete piles on the north side of the river. Yesterday, onlv 12 of the 296 piles required for the bridge were not finished. Mr A. J. Caithness, of the firm of David A. J. Caithness, said then that the casting would be finished about Tuesday if driving the piles had not started by then. All the equipment for the pile driving is now ready. A new English steam hammer, believed to be the first of its type used in the South Island, will drive the piles. The makers claim that the hammer, weighing four and a half tons with a maximum drop of five feet, can deliver 45 blows a minute. The big steam boiler to supply the power for the hammer and all other equipment to be used in the river-bed is mobile, so that it can be quickly shifted in the event of a flood warning. The piers will be cast on top of the piles. Construction of the embankments on the two-mile railway deviation between points south of Kaiapoi and north of Chaneys is now almost completed. Laying of the rails has not yet begun, but this will be completed at the same time as the bridge.