Waiau bridge open

Press, 14 June 1980, Page 3

Waiau bridge open

School children chasing pieces. of ribbon were among the first on to the new Waiau bridge after it was opened yesterday. Mr A. W. H. teaman, aged 92, the brother of the first Government appointed ferryman at the river, Mr Harry Leaman, helped the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) cut the ribbon.

People and photographers milled tightly about Mr Muldoon and Mr Leaman as they walked a fe paces on to the bridge. Cars nosed their way thorugh the crowd to take the official party across the bridge and back across the old wooden, one-way bridge for the last time. A big crowd gathered on the Parnassus

side of the Waiau River for the opening ceremony. Mr Muldoon, who flew from Christchurch to the site by helicopter, described the old bridge as a “vulnerable link in the highway system,” and said that it had been known that it “could go out at any time.” “With the completion of this splendid new bridge that risk has been moved,’ ’he said. The history of the old bridge and the construction of the new one was the topic of Mr Muldoon’s speech. The chairman of the Cheviot County Council (Mr R. G. Anderson) said that the new bridge was an “essential link in the arterial highways joining one end of New Zealand to the other.” A railway overbridge on the Parnassus approach to the bridge will bring the total cost of the project to about $3.2 million. The overbridge is expected to be finished in about three months. The new bridge, which cost $1.7 million, replaces one 200 m away

opened in 1911. The latter was restricted in the weight it could carry and the direction of traffic was controlled by traffic lights. The old bridge was prone to foundation failure in times of flood and in 1976, when a load restriction was put on the bridge, it was decided to replace it. Strengthening the old bridge would not have been economic. Mr Muldoon and the official party went to the Parnassus School after the opening. Included in the offical party were Mr Anderson, the member of Parliament for Rangiora (Mr D. F. Quigley), the Acting District Commissioner of Works in Christchurch (Mr M. R. Lancaster), th? commercial users’ representative on the No. 13 District Roads Council (Mr J. S. Callaway), the deputy chairman of the National Roads Board (Mr J. Thorn, and the Director of Roading in the Ministry of Works and Development (Mr F. A. Langbein).