Bridge delays concern M.P.

Press, 2 July 1983, Page 14

Bridge delays concern M.P.

Parliamentary reporter The member of Parliament for Marlborough, Mr D. L. Kidd, is concerned about increasing and unscheduled delays to road traffic at the Awatere roadrail bridge on the main road between Blenheim and Kaikoura. Traffic is being delayed while the bridge is painted and repaired by the Railways Corporation.

The National Roads Board pays an annual rental to use the lower truss of the bridge under the railway line. “There are few convenient places to pass on the road and lots of crazy driving by people desperate to reach the inter-island ferry, or leaving it,” Mr Kidd said. “People are being banked up waiting for the road to reopen. This road is a main

artery and I am regularly getting the personal experiences of people being terribly inconvenienced. “If the contractors doing the job stuck to the agreed and advertised timetable, which they are not, it would still be very inconvenient for drivers,” he said. Mr Kidd said that after one summer’s work only one-third of the work had been done. He was lobbying hard

with the Minister of Railways, Mr Gair, to get the work planned for two more summers to be compressed into the 1983-84 summer. He also wanted a temporary road bridge over the Awatere during the summer. The National Roads board said it would be dangerous to put a temporary bridge over the Awatere for two summers and a winter, and also very expensive.

Mr Kidd said the workshould be compressed into one summer, when it would be safe to have a temporary bridge during low river flows. “The contract for the work is unsatisfactory in both its intentions and its performance,” he said. If the Army needed a bridge over the Awatere, they would have it in place by lunchtime.