EMERGENCY BRIDGES

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 November 1939, Page 12

EMERGENCY BRIDGES

BUILT ON MECCANO PRINCIPLE.

British engineers h'ave evolved a new kind of emergency bridge by which vital communications can be rapidly restored if enemy aircraft manages to damage or destroy bridges on the trunk roads of England, Scotland or Wales.

The. bridges are constructed of galvanised steel. They have only nine standardised unit parts held together by hundreds of nuts and bolts on the principle made familiar by Meccano, the famous constructional toy know to children all over the world. Entire bridge-spans up to 200 feet long and capable of bearing the heaviest road vehicles can be erected ten times as quickly as the bridges they will replace.

Groups of selected workmen employed by firms of contractors all over the country have been specially trained in the building of these emergency bridges.

The country is divided into eight Ministry of Transport districts, each in charge of a divisional engineer. Immediately damage to a road-bridge is reported in his district, the engineer calls up the nearest contractors, who rush their trained men to the scene. ( At strategic points in each district are carefully hidden depots where all steel parts and other equipment necessary for making new bridges or repairing damaged ones are lying in readiness for the emergency.