BRIDGE FOR RAKAIA GORGE FLOODWAY

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23975, 16 June 1943, Page 4

BRIDGE FOR RAKAIA GORGE FLOODWAY

OBJECTION TO WIDTH OF PROPOSED STRUCTURE Strong objection "to the width of the bridge that the Main Highways Board intend to erect over the floodway at Rakaia gorge” is expressed by the Selwyn County Council in a letter to the Minister of Works (the Hon. R. Semple). A copy of the letter received by the Canterbury Progress League s secretary-organiser (Mr P. R. Chmie) yesterday stated that a tender for a bridge 12 feet wide had already been aq •epted, and asked the Minister to have the work deferred as the council considered that he would insist on a two-way bridge once he had made an inspection, Local bodies concerned, the latter stated, believed that to replace the wooden bridge with a reinforced concrete structure with a roadway only 12 feet wide would be to perpetuate a menace to the travelling public and an inconvenience to the farming community. The council emphasised that larger headers could not be taken over a bridge such as proposed, and smaller headers and certain drills could be taken over only with difficulty. The adjoining steel bridge over the main river had a width sufficient for two vehicles to pass, and a motorist crossing this would expect a two-way bridge to follow. Improvements to the route would make it popular with South Island motoring traffic, and the fact of sightseers and tourists stopping at such bridges made a two-way bridge imperative. The council also emphasised that a bridge with a 12-ft roadway built over the Selwyn river in 1930 was already out of date, and it was hoped that the same short-sighted policy would not be repeated. The counties concerned suggested a width of at least 18 feet (the two-way highway bridge specification of the American Association of State Highway Officials). Further, as the lenr*h was about 200 feet, the cost of increasing the width to take two lines of traffic, the letter stated, should not be excessive. • It was stated that copies of the letter had been sent to local bodies and individuals interested. Mr Climie indicated yesterday that the Progress League would consider the letter at the first opportunity, and would doubtless support it.