EAST COAST LINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20054, 28 September 1939, Page 4

EAST COAST LINE

WORK AT WAIKOKOPU END PLATE-LAYING STARTED BIG VIADUCT ON THE WAY GOOD PROGRESS MADE Good progress continues on the East Coast railway between Gisborne and Waikokopu, and activity is proceeding normally everywhere. The district engineer, Mr. O. ■G. Thornton, stated to-day that a stage had been reached at the Waikokopu end at which the plate-laying was able to proceed for several miles, while work on a viaduct that was expected to take the best part of a year to complete had been, commenced. Plate-laying was begun at Waikokopu last week, and is now extending round the Waikokopu bluff. Three bridges have been completed on that section, one at Waikokopu, another at Opoutama, and a third over the Kopuawhara Stream below ■ No. 3 Camp. It is expected that about 4| or five miles of line will be laid down immediately from Waikokopu. Viaduct of 530 ft. The big viaduct that has been commenced is near No. 3 Camp ana seven miles from Waikokopu. It will be a large reinforced concrete structure 530 ft. long and 120 ft. above the creek level. It will h'ave nine 40ft. concrete beam spans and a large arch 120 ft. long. Work is now in progress on the foundations, most of which have been excavated. It is expected that the Work will take nine or 10 months, or possibly more. The work has reached a stage when the public can see something of the completed work. Hails have been laid for 12 miles out of Gisborne, and but for delays in receiving steel supplies for bridges between the 12-mile peg and Bartletts, the track would have been, laid to Bartletts before this. The piers of a bridge at Mr. Murphy’s, near Muriwai, have been nearly completed, and steel supplies are being awaited for the remainder of the bridges.