THE MOKAU BRIDGE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2515, 17 December 1927, Page 5

THE MOKAU BRIDGE.

OFFICIALLY OPENED TO-DAY. LINK BETWEEN AUCKLAND AND WELLINGTON. Early on the morning of Thursday, October 13th, the historic ferry of the Mokau was permanently placed out of commission, and the fine new concrete bridge was opened to th e traffic, thus forming the connecting link in the Main North Road from Wellington to Auckland via Taranaki. Owing to the inability of the Minister of Public Works to bo present, there was no ceremony to mark the occasion, consequently the official opening was withheld until to-day, when the Prime Minister and'‘the Minister of Public Works were present at the function. This longffelt need has been in the minds of the people on either side of the Mckau for a long time, and with the advent of the Main Highways Board, coupled with the increasing popularity of the beautiful route that conveys tourists between Auckland and Wellington via Te Kuiti, the Awakino Valley and Taranaki, the erection of the bridge became an absolute necessity. The bridge has now been in commission for about two months, and to-day traffic is passing and re-passing, and it has meant an important matter in the lives of settlers and an important step in the progress of the country. THE BRIDGE. About two- and a-half years have elapsed since the undertaking was commenced, work being started in May, 1925. Delays occurred in the early stages. The arrival of steel from Home was held up by a. shipping strike, and floods and boisterous weather were encountered, while at the end of last Spring work had to be suspended for a month owing to a succession of bad storms andi floods. Once away from the water level, however, excellent progress enabled the structure to be brought to an early completion at a cost of about £34,000.

Comprising! 11 spans, the bridge is 670 feet in length, while the northern approach is chains and the southern 6i, making a total distance across the river of 1396 feet. The superstructure is built of steel girders with a reinforced concrete deck coated with Laykold, a tar-like preparation. Excluding the abutments, there are 10 piers, and eight of these consist of concrete piles driven 30 feet beneath the bed of the river, encased in sft concrete cylinders (two to each; pier), sunk two feet into the river bed, and subsequently filled with concrete. The. cylinders are linked with mass concrete at tlie top to complete the pier. With the. four central piers, which carry the lifting span to allow ships to pass up and down the river, six-foot cylinders were used, and these were sunk 30 feet into the river bed, filled with reinforced concrete and connected at the top with mass concrete. THE FIRST PUNT. Thirty-eight years have passed since the first punt was piloted slowly across the Mokau by James Reardon, the original licensee of the ferry. At first there were Gnly horse-drawn vehicles to be considered, and it often took as long as three-quarters of an hour to make the passage. Prior to the establishment of any sort of a ferry, travellers were dependent upon the courtesy of Mr Joshua Jones for a passage across in his row boat and the unfailing goodfellowship of the early settlers was demonstrated in the frequency with which the Misses Jones used to tramp from their house to the landing in order to ferry some belated stockman to the other side. The provision of a smoothly-working lifting span in the new traffic bridge calls attention to tlie navigableness of the Mokau, and although the volume of shipping to-day is strictly limited, tilers are indications that the busy scenes of a feiv years agio, when a steamer a day was a common and ordinary matter, may again prevail at the port. Times have changed and the Mokau has been caught up in the ivheels of progress, and in the ceremony which is taking place to-day is the consummation of a great deal of thought and labour of a work that will go down in the annals of this country in its history of progress. Among/ those who were present at tho ceremony to-day were members of the Waitomo County Council and tho Te Kuiti Chamber of Commerce, who left by car this morning.