FOURTEEN NEW BRIDGES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 140, 9 March 1929, Page 10

FOURTEEN NEW BRIDGES

TO COST £300,000 MAIN HIGHWAYS BOARD’S PROGRAMME “Greatest mileage at the least cost U a well-known highway slogan, but achievements - cannot be measured by miles in the matter of bridge construction,” reports the Main Highways Board, “The- same expenditure as ■would ba sufficient to give road users ■/wile of sealed road surface would build les» -.than a chain of bridges, while the expenditure involved in the construction of a mile of concrete road, most expensive form of road pavement, represents slightly, over four chains of bridge construction. “The bridge construction carried on by the Main Highways Board, during the four years the board has been m operation has absorbed a good proportion of the board S total expenditure. In the near future the board will have to appropriate large amounts for bridge work. While during the past four years the > board’s bridge construction programme . has included several hew bridges . over rivers which had not been previously ■bridged,' such as the Mokau Bridge on the Mount Messenger Road, the Welwyn Bridge on the main road south of Christchurch, and the_Kopu Bridge on the Pokeno-Thames Road, most of the expenditure in the immediate future will be on the renewal of bridges which have served the travelling . public for many ' ye “The' original Main Highways Act provided for the payment of a subsidy of £1 for -£1 on bridge construction, but the board, realising the necessity for giving •greater asistance towards the cost ot buflding bridges, more particularly large bridges, has how authority (given to it by amendment to the original Act) to subsidise bridge construction on a more liberal basis. As an instance of the board s liability the bridges mentioned hereunder are either now beipg reconstructed, or ' ,will have to’ be reconstructed at a very estimated expenditure on fourteen bridges • will appr % 1 f ? 1 £300,000 or an average of over £20,000 for each bridge, and the Main, Highways Board will require to find about £220,000. The following are the bridges referred , to: The Balclutha traffic bridge on the Dune-din-Invercargill Main Highway (this is the largest, and will cost between £50,000 and £60,000), the- Rangitikei bridge, at Bulls, the Ashburton traffic bridge, the Aparima River bridge, at Riverton, the Ruamahunga River bridge, at Te Ore Ore, near Masterton, the Aorangi bridge, at Feilding, th* Waiwera and PuhOi bridges, on the road between Auckland and Maungaturf.to, the Kokotau River bridge (Wuirarapa South), the Pareora River bridge (South Canterbury), the Whan bridge, at Auckland, the Motueka River bridge, the Hurunui River bridge (North Canterbury),* and the Waipukurau traffic bridge. The Empire bridge, over the Waimakariri River, near Kaiapoi. Ts being rebuilt by the Waimakariri River Trust, and the Main Highways Board is contributing about £13,000 towards the cost. . .. - “The foregoing are mentioned as the more Important and largest bridges calling fob attention, and every case is a re- ' phcraent Of an old bridge. There are many smaller bridges, the expenditure of which in the near future will in the aggregate amount to many thousands of pounds.”