RAILWAY BRIDGE TO BECOME ROAD BRIDGE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 June 1938, Page 3

RAILWAY BRIDGE TO BECOME ROAD BRIDGE.

BIG SCHEME AT KAKARIKI Considerably improved road facilities will be made available when the new railway bridge over the Rangitikei river is completed at Kakariki, a few miles north of Halcorabe on the Main Trunk line.' The work of building the foundations for the new fabricated steel structure, which has been in progress for about 18 months, is nearly finished and then the Railway Department will be able to take over ana go ahead with the steel work which is not expected to be a lengthy job. The construction of the piers lias been undertaken by private contract and it has proved a difficult task. Four of these are finished and they are 46 feet deep. Built of concrete, they are of massive proportions and the steel and concrete in each weighs 500 tons. Two are somewhat larger than the otherS. Placed in the middle of the riverbed they go down 54 feet. Owing to the tremendous water pressure it was found imperative to use air Jocks in order to seal the first five feet of each cylinder and in the case of the deepest ■.a" pressure of 150 pounds of air to the. square inch was necessary. In the rest about 24 pounds was found to be sufficient. Altogether there will be five 120 feet spans with an abutment 40 feet in length. An average of 12 men have been employed and the contractor is Mr. M. G. Templeton, of Wellington. When the Main Highways Board assumes ownership of the old railway bridge two level crossings will be eliminated as well as the removal of the danger attendant upon both the rail and road traffic using the same structure. A small deviation has been effected in the road line on the Palmerston North side of the bridge, but more extensive alterations have been undertaken on the northern approaches. As the road comes down the hill from Greatford a bad bend has disappeared at the 1 foot and instead of going over the railway line, traffic will go on to the bridge from the left-hand Side of the line.

As part of the general scheme for easing difficult curves on the railway line a new track is being made down the hill to the new Kakariki bridge which will improve the climb into the Greatford station and the station itself is to be shifted about a quarter of a mile on the Wanganui side of a new road ramp that is finished at the entrance to the yards. VVorkraen are at present busily engaged in filling the approaches to thiramp which will mean tlie end of an other level crossing.'