TONGAHOE DEVIATION

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 28 September 1933, Page 4

TONGAHOE DEVIATION

MAIN SOUTH ROAD

WORK UNDERTAKEN BY COUNTY.

EASY GR ADIENT TO BE PROVIDED

A start has been made to construct the new line of road which will, with a new bridge, eliminate the dangers of the present road in the vicinity of the Tongahoe bridge, ,4£ miles south of Hawera on the main road.

A dozen registered unemployed men are engaged on the first cutting on the MoKoia side of the river and more men will be put on as required. This cutting is in itself a, big job, being 52 feet deep and four chains -in length, with a road width of 2d feet. No less than 15,003 cubic yards of spoil require to be removed in making the cutting, and the whole of this will be required to fill in the depression which lies between the entrance point of the cutting on the high spur of the hill and the level of the proposed new bridge across the Tongahoe. From the foregoing, which covers only a portion of the work to be done, it will be apparent that the undertaking is of considerable magnitude. The new road will leave the present road at a point, on the Hawera side, on the left side opposite Mr. Irvine’s entrance gate, a short distance above the acute bend which lias to be negotiated before approaching the bridge. The spur will be cut through at a level 30 feet above the present road where it parallels the stream This will be the bridge level. On the Mokoia side the road will rise to the big cutting at a gradient of not steeper than 1 in 17, and from the cutting proceed in almost a straight line on the same gradient till it reaches the Mokoia fiat and then on level ground joins the present road at a point fully a quarter of a mile beyond the last bend of the hill on the. present road on that side. From the point of leaving the present road, near Mr. Irvine’s gate, to the return to the present road near Mis« Lysaght’s property the new road will have a length of 54 chains, shortening the. distance at present traversed by 25 chains. Those who know the road can best appreciate what a vast improvement will be effected when the deviation is completed and the bridge erected. In place of a tortuous road with fairly steep gradients and dangerous corners there will he a. practically straight road on one easy grade. In all, it is computed that there will be about 40,000 cubic yards of spoil to shift, other smaller cuttings being required beyond those mentioned. Necessarily the job will be a long one and the matter of the bridge has to be taken into consideration, this being in the hands of the Public Works Department and the Highways Board. The bridge, as mentioned, will be 30 feet above the present roadway and about 70 feet above the normal level of the. stream. In this elevation there is no fear of the danger of flood damage which threatens the present bridge when the stream is in high flood through logs and trees piling up against the structure. On one occasion the water was dammed up to a level above the bridge decking by such a blockage and the structure bent to a curve four feet in the centre from the straight line. This seems hardly credible, but it is a fact, and there can now be seen a heavy wire rope on the upstream side of the bridge tethering it. to a sunken anchor as a. measure of precaution against a possible similar happening in the future. The road construction is being carried out by the Hawera County Council under the supervision of the county engineer (Mr. A. Muggeridge), nucl there is no subsidy for this. Mr. J. S. Murray is responsible for the survey work and determining the line, of the new road.