OLD MOHAKA BRIDGE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17030, 15 August 1929, Page 12

OLD MOHAKA BRIDGE

REPAIRS RECOMMENDED STOCK REQUIREMENTS (Herald Correspondent.) If the Wairoa County Council will agree to find £2IOO by way oi a contribution to the cost of repairs to tlio old Mohaka bridge, the Government will provide the balance of £4200 which it is believed will be sufficient to put the structure in. order for the use of stock, and also to provide access to settlers' properties in the area served by the old bridge. The total cost of the bridge repairs is estimated at £6300, and it is believed that this expenditure will give the bridge a further life of 14 or 15 years, after which transport problems may have changed their character sufficiently to permit of the abandonment of lbe budge. When flic Minister of Public Works, tl e Hon. K. A. Ransom, was in the district recently, the. Mohaka settlers took their chance oil placing before him the. necessity for repairing the bridge and thus maintaining through communication for stock, as-well as keeping open the access road of the settlers on the far side of the river. The Mohaka Progress League sponsored the deputation, and since returning to headquarters the Minister has had reports prepared regarding the cost of repairing the bridge as against total renewal, and also the cost of completing the stock-track communication between Mohaka and Waikari, in order that drovers need not take their mobs on the main road. Recently the Mohaka Progress League received from the Minister, and forwarded to the Wairoa County Council for its information,a letter setting out what Die Minister is prepared to do in the way of helping the settlers of the locality. EXTRA 15 YEARS OF LIFE The Minister’s letter stated that there appealed to be no doubt as to the essential nature of the Mohaka bridge, for the present at least, though when the railway as connected up it is anticipated that through stock traffic will he much diminished. The whole of the decking and some of the capping of the piers will have to be renewed, and the two rimu spans constructed recently as a temporary replacement of the spans destroyed by lire will also have to be renewed. in Australian hardwood, to make the expenditure worth while. A new structure would cost £16,000, as against the repairs amounting to roughly £6OOO, and the Minister intimated that ’lie would not he prepared to consider the total renewal of the bridge, but would make a contribution to the cost of the repairs at the rate of £2 for £l. W AIK All I MOHAKA STOCK TRACK On the question of l the improvement of the stock track between Waikari and Mohaka, tlie Minister stated in his letter tlTat he had had investigations made and had come to the conclusion that for a good part of the distance the track is already in condition to meet the requirements of the stock traffic. Between the Waitalin stream and the Waikair River, however, there is justification for some considerable expenditure, the cost of necessary works there being about £4BOO. including three small bridges. The Minister indicated that he would contribute £B3O for the formation work, and £2493 for the bridges, the first being at the rate of £1 Nil* £t, and Hie bridge contribution at the rate of £2 for £1 spent by the county. When this communication was placed before the Wairoa County Council, at this week’s meeting, it was decided to hold (lie matter over till npxt meeting, and that in the meantime it should be discussed informally with the object of evolvin'' a scheme to enable the county *o profit hv the' Minister’s offer. I* was agreed' that the programme of bridge construction and repairs was a big one for the countv to handle at oresent, hut that, the work should he done if possible without raising a loan.