GREAT SOUTH ROAD

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 55, Issue 3938, 11 August 1937, Page 7

GREAT SOUTH ROAD

NEW BRIDGE OVER MANGAPIKO STREAM.

TEMPORARY STRUCTURE BEING ERECTED.

A party of Public Works Department carpenters and bridge builders is at present busily engaged preparing to erect a temporary bridge over the Mangapiko stream just past the liorthern boundary of the borough of Te Awam,utu, on the Great South Road, and materials are also being prepared for the new permanent structure.

We gather that the temporary bridge, which will be constructed very largely of timber taken from the disused bridge over the Puniu River just south of Kihikihi, is expected to be ready for use in about three weeks’ time, and that traffic will then avoid the long detour via Racecourse Road. The long approaches to the new structure will be brought into use, and within the next day or so Messrs Goosman and Company’s lorries will be going at high pressure carting metal from Te Kawa quarry to form the road surface. The filling, which really is an embankment about eight feet above the old road level, will be used for practically its full length, the only departure being a run-off to cross the temporary bridge until such time as the permanent structure is completed. The new bridge will be a decidedly pretentious one, with an over-all length of 55 feet in the central span and two approach spans each of 17 feet 6 inches, giving a total length of 90 feet. The bridge will be built on the cantilever principle, and will take a stress of 250 tons. The width of the roadway over the bridge will be 28 feet, of which 24 feet is for road traffic and the other 4 feet as a footway for pedestrians. There will be a row of huge concrete piles, each weighing in the vicinity of three tons, and each very strongly reinforced, at each end of the main span, and five similar piles at each abutment. The deck of the bridge will be 16 feet 4 inches above normal water level, so that there should be no fear of flood damage. It is interesting to note that 238 cubic yards of concrete will be used in the permanent structure, with 221 tons of steel, exclusive of that used in the huge piles referred to above. All the piles are heavily reinforced, and the job is sure tp be a lasting one.

Asked when the new bridges would be in use, an official of the Public Works Department stated yesterday that the temporary structure would be completed in approximately three weeks’ time, and the permanent one in about six months. The latter period, of course, provides for the permanent finishing of the approaches in conformity with the standard of the new road. The bridge will be in a direct line with the road from the top of “ Green Hill ” right to Mr C. Smedley’s gate, so there will be a long straight. Where the bridge is to span the Mangapiko there will be a slight up-grade to reach the decking, but it will hardly be noticeable when finished.

The workmen, or those who have not homes in Te Awamutu, are accommodated in eight or nine floored tents beside the job.