THE ORARI TRAFFIC BRIDGES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3570, 10 March 1886, Page 3

THE ORARI TRAFFIC BRIDGES.

0 ■ ■ Mr W. Shiers, Overseer to the Geraldine Road Board, having been requested to report on tho bridge by the Geraldino County ' Council, handed m tho following at the Board meeting yesterday : — ' " The South Bridge at tho Orari is 280 ft 1 long, m seven 40ft spans, and the North 920 ft long, m twenty-three 40ft spans. The bridges havo 14ft clear roadway, and tho 1 deck level averages 14ft abovo tho river-bed. ' The piles are round, of Australian titnber of 1 different kinds, and originally had a diameter 1 of 12 inches. The sap, however, on many of them is now completely rotton at the lovel of the shingle bed, and can now bo torn off with | tho fingers. This reduces the diameter to about 8 inches on many of tho piles, but tho heart 1 of them is fairly sound. The weak point m 1 the construction of the bridges is the stringers ; or bearers, which aro placed too far apart, the , deck planks having a bearing of four feet. This is far too wido for traction engines, and \ although the bridgo is strong enough to carry the weight, the decking is not. The greater 1 portion of the decking has been down 12 years and is now very much worn, requires constant • attention and repairs, and the side rails being 1 constructed of whito pino are m many places ; quite rotten. Owing to the deck being so high above the riverbed ; to the heavy ' character of tho superstructure and the small ' diameter of the piles, tho bridges oscillate ; very much when heavy loads aro passing over. | I should adviso that traction engines be prohibited from crossing the bridges as thoy are 1 unsafe."