NEW RAILWAY BRIDGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 230, 28 August 1929, Page 8

NEW RAILWAY BRIDGE

ERECTION AT AORANGI. (Special to “Standard.”) FEILDING, Aug. 28. For many months much has been heard about the construction of a new traffic bridge over tho Oroua River at Aorangi, and it is only on a recent date that the matter has been finalised and tenders are about to be called for the construction work. During all the controversy as to what should be the ration of contributions to the new bridge by the local bodies concerned no thought was given to the railway bridge which crosses the river a few yards on the upstream side ot the traffic structure, and it will come as a surprise to most people to learn mat the Railway Department is at present doing the preliminary work repuratory to the erection of a new ,ridge further upstream from the present structure. A “Standard” representative visited the locality this morning, and from the activity with which the work is being carried out it would seem as if the department is not going to lose much time in getting the new bridge under way. The curve in the line from the siding at Aorangi to the Feilding side of the present bridge is being straightened considerably, the present curve being of a 14 chain radius, while the new one will be 20 chains. At present gangs of men are busy at each end oi the deviation laying the line of the new track, this wort entailing the filling in of a fairly lengthy depression with yards and yards of ballast. A switch nas been made on the main line, and the ballast waggons can therefore shunt along the new track as fast as it is laid. To facilitate the work of construction of the new bridge, a temporary low level structure will be placed across the river on which the material for the new main line and bridge will be transported. When, completed, the new edifice will be of ten sixty-foot spans and will be of much heavier design than the existing bridge. It is understood that this is one oi the main reasons why the new bridge has been found necessary, the rolling stock of the present day proving too heavy for a bridge that was constructed when the line was laid. Repairs on the existing bridge have also of late bene increasing m cost, and the decision to build afresh has no doubt been adopted as the cheaper course. ' . It certainly seems a strange coincidence that, after sharing many years of work, both the traffic and railway bridges which parallel each other at Aorangi should be withdrawn from commission at the same time.