BULLER GORGE RAILWAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22839, 21 September 1937, Page 8

BULLER GORGE RAILWAY

CONSTRUCTION OF BRIDGE GOOD PROGRESS BEING MADE [by telegraph—OWN* correspondent] WESTPORT, Monday Construction of the railway bridge across the Bullor River, near Inangalitia. Junction, is now in full swing, and in the recent long spell of fine weather good progress has been made. At its beginning this undertaking, which is a determining factor in the time that will be required to complete the line through the Buller Gorge, was held up for want of plant and iron work, but in the absence of abnormal delays through floods or prolonged wet spells it is anticipated that it will now be completed in about 18 months. The whole of the bridge-building plant is now in operation, and the extensive equipment required for a construction job of this magnitude is arranged in position. The bridge will be 700 feet long from abutment to abutment and will be carried on six concrete piers, resting on six pairs of concrete cylinders sunk down to the solid rock below the bed of the river. There will <also be two abutments and one pier sunk into solid rock at the water's edge on the Inangahua end. The bridge will consist of six 100 ft. spans and one 30ft. and one 4oft. land spans.