THE HAURAKI BRIDGE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5084, 4 February 1927, Page 2

THE HAURAKI BRIDGE.

PROGRESS OF WORK. PILE-DRIVING WELL FORWARD. Good progress is being made with the erection Mf the Hauraki bridge •over the Waihou River at Orongo. The river is 1500'ft wide., and up tio the present the permanent piles have been driven for a distance of about 700 ft, while the temporary staging has advanced another hundred feet cr so. Nine piers have been completed, and the pilEs for three more piers and the 20 piles F’r the opening span have been diven. Each pier comprises three nests of three or four concrEte piles These, are about 40’ft long, and are footed with a wooden pile about 20<ft kng. Each nest of piles is encased in a concrete cylinder, which is later filled wtih concrete, and the. three arc connected. The girdErs between the piers will be of mild steel plates encased in concrete.

ThE loadway will be 12ft wide, with five passing places each Tift wider. The opening span, which is being assembled at the Public Works Department’s depot at The Mount, Tauranga, will be of stEel and 120 ft long. It will be controlled by electrically driven winchSCs.

For the construction of approach road on the K°pu side a steam suction dredge, .capable of, lifting 1000 cubic yards off spoil a shift has bEen borrowed from the Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers Improvement Scheme works.

Information as, to the date o'f the completion of the. bridge is vEry vague, but it is hinted that it will be well into t|he year 1928.