WAIPUKURAU BRIDGE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 163, 26 June 1935, Page 15

WAIPUKURAU BRIDGE

Official Opening To-day TOTAL COST OF £13,500 From Our Own Correspondent WAIPUKURAU, June 25. As from to-morrow (Wednesday) the public will be using the new traffic bridge over the Tukituki river at Waipukurau, the structure having been completed at a cost of approximately £13,500. At 2.30 p.m. the official opening ceremony will take place, the Minister of Public Works, Hon. J. Bitchener, officiating. The ribbon will be cut by Mrs Pattison, whose husband, Mr C. Pattison, is chairman of the Patangata County Council. The speakers will bo Mr Pattison, Air I. W. N. Alackie, Mr A. E. Jull, AI.P., and the contractor, after which the Minister will declare the bridge officially opened. The bridge, which is a handsome structure 900 feet in length divided into 20 spans of 45 feet each, will be a fine addition to the town and district. Built in reinforced concrete, with curved approaches, the bridge has an overall width of 30 feet, including a 22 feet roadway and a slightly raised 4 feet footpath, the railing being of ornamental pre-cast concrete.

The cost of the bridge, together with the fillings and other extras is approximately £13,500. Of this amount the Alain Highways Board will contribute about £9366, the remainder of the cost being apportions! among the contributory local bodi# as follows: Waipawa County, 30 per cent; Patangata County, 27| p.c.; Waipukurau Borough, 25 p.c.; Waipukurau County, 17) p.c. These totals of division were arrived at, and agreed to, as the result of the finding of a commission which sat in 1930.

The present wooden bridge in use was built in 1888 by the Waipukurau Road Board, at a cost of about £6OOO. Prior to the construction of this, the only means of crossing the river was by ford on the western side of the new concrete structure. Later, in 1911, there were six local bodies concerned in the maintenance of the bridge, these including the Dannevirke County Council, and the Waipawa Borough Council. In that year £lBBB was spent on extensive repairs.

Nearly 20 years ago the old bridge was condemned as unsafe by the engineer of the Waipawa County, and in 1918 it was again condemned by the then engineer of the Patangata County Council, Ultimately a commission whs set up in 1918 to allocate the costs among the local bodies concerned of the maintenance or reconstruction of the bridge. The first plans were drawn iu 1920, two further plans being later prepared, in which the length of the spans were successively increased from 30 feet to 36 feet, and from the latter figure to the present span length of i 5 lect. It was announced by the Minister of Public Works in 1921 that the construction of the new traffic bridge would be proceeded with at an estimated cost of £24,(XX). However, time went, on and nothing was done, perhaps because the local authorities were

not very keen to lace the expense involved, and could not decide in what proportions the costs should be divided. Fortunately this delay resulted iu a I considerable saving being effected, as the present new structure has been built at a little more than half the estimated cost announced in 1924. This considerable saving can be attributed to the shortening of the bridge from 1200 to 900 feet, by the use of modern | construction methods, and hy lower : costs generally than was the case in i 1924. Although the new bridge was mentioned time and again from 1924 onwards, it was not uptil 1933 that tenders were invited, and the contract let, construction work commencing on February 2, 193-1.