THE CAMBRIDGE BRIDGE.

Waikato Times, Volume LV, Issue 6631, 1 February 1905, Page 3

THE CAMBRIDGE BRIDGE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —As ,; e contract for building the above is to be -ivtm to the America Company and a start made at once, kindly grant mo a small spaoe to make a feu- remarks thereon. At starting, let me say that I think the High Level Bridge a great desi: ability, which should be constructed as expeditiously as possible. At the same time, proper care should be taken to see that such a large sum of public money as is involved in its erection should be properly spent. As I wrote you some time bacV, the great mistake in regard to the erection of the bridge has been made by not placing the whole matter in the hands of a competent engineer, who should be responsible for the stability o f the whole structure. Some pe pie say, "Look what a large sum is saved by not having to pay an engineer." Lot me say that, had proper plans been prepared, and the job be«n publicly tendered for, not only would the engineer's charges have been save 1 to the ratepayers, but probably i'IOOO, besides the amount that will have to be paid to the American company. Have proper precautions been taken with regard to the foundations for the piers? I say, emphatically, "No." The so-called testing for foundations consists of two holes in each side of the river, not as large as ordinary p >st holes. When it was necessary to employ an engineer to report to the Cambridge Borough Council as to the most desirable kind of a bridge to erect, might I ask why some well-known engineer was not selected (say, for instance, Mr Ashley Hunier, who so efficiently carried out the Cambridge Waterworks). As is well known, the Americans are notorious for erecting flimsy structures. Scarcely a week passes in the U.S.A. but one can read in the newspapers an account of the collapse of some bridge, often involving loss of life. It is therefore necessary that a properly qualified clerk of the works should be appointed to inspect all material and labour u 3 ed in the construction of the bridge. Might I ask who is to select that person, and to whom is he to report, and who is to decide in any dispute that may arise between the contractors and the inspector. Echo answers, "Mr Thos. Wells." Sir, if the whole matter was not so serious from a ratepayers' point of view, it would be a fit subject for ridicule.—l am, etc., WALTER CEISP. Fencourt, Janu try 30th, 1905.