Twin Bridges Over Waimakariri River

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30543, 11 September 1964, Page 1

Twin Bridges Over Waimakariri River

Two twin-lane bridges, each 1380 ft long, will be built side by side across the Waimakariri river for the northern motorway. Ministry of Works planners have decided. 'They will be designed by M.O.W. engineers in Christchurch in such a way that they can later be expanded to three lanes each—by bridging the gap between them.

This decision resolves a problem which had begun to slow down work on construction of the motorway itself. There had been talk of building only one twin-lane bridge across the river, for northbound traffic, and diverting south-bound motorway traffic across the existing Main North road traffic bridge. That would have meant a different system of carriageways on both sides of the river. Now the motorway construction can proceed on the basis of two new bridges. Mr W. A. Scott, the Christchurch resident engineer, said yesterday that construction of the bridges was unlikely to begin this financial year—that is before March next year. Although all the test piles had been driven, the new bridges would take some time to design. Willows Removed Considerable work has already been done on the motorway on each side of the river. Acres of willows have been removed and the stopbank around the south branch of the river has been relocated to protect the motor-! way. All the foundations for both the north and south carriageways have been squared. In the swampy ground on the south side of the river a shingle mat has been spread' over the route and a thick! surcharge of shingle built up over the north-bound carriageway. The surcharge has been there for about a year and the softer foundation has been well compacted. The surcharge will be removed before the carriageway is built. At present work is being done on a culvert to take Wilsons drain under the motorway and through the stopbank. It is about one-quarter complete. Preparation for the motorway on the south side of the river has been done for a distance of one mile and a quarter back to a point about a quarter of a mile from the Belfast Hotel. North of the river the land and topsoil has been stripped away and a shingle mat laid up to Neaves road, a distance of three-quarters of a mile. Work has been started on the

ramps for the Tram road interchange. At that point Tram road will be taken across the motorway on a bridge and the interchange will be in the form of a half-diamond, later to be expanded to a full diamond. Land Drainage Work has also been done on the reorganisation of the land drainage pattern around the motorway route north of the river. This has involved the construction of seven or eight large culverts. Beyond Neaves road some preliminary work has been done on the deviation of the Kaikanui stream and a culvert to take it under the motorway is about to be built. Mr R. N. Ferguson, the Ministry of Works district land purchase officer, said compensation had been settled for the majority of owners of land affected by the construction work to date.