CRITERION BRIDGE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5141, 20 June 1927, Page 2

CRITERION BRIDGE.

PROGRESS AT PAEROA.

CONSTRUCTION IN FULL SWING

Considerable activit?' is noticeable at the site of the erection of the steel and concrete bridge over the ■Ohinemuri River at Paeroa. The work of construction, which is in the -hands of the Public Works Department, has shown considerable progress during the last six weeks. An inspection of the works reveals that the three main piers are completed, and the piles are driven ready for the fourth pier on the Te Aroh.t side of the river. Two land piers are in course of construction, and will probably be finished within the next few days. The obstacles which were met with in the stream during preleinina.ry operations have been satisfactorily overcome, and no further difficulties that will retard progress are probable. Owing to the formation of the river-bed it has been found necessar?’ to do a certain amount of dredging to dispose of the hard strata, met with. The work oof driving the piles in the stream has been necessaril?’ slow on account of having, first of all, to sink a steel casing, through which a hole is bored to a depth of 14ft and 20in in diameter. The boring is done by means of a “jumper” bar worked by steam from the pile-driving frame. Two complete pile-driving engines are at work, and two separate gangs of men are employed. The steel girders which are- to rest on the piles were made in England and shipped to the department’s workshops a.t Tauranga, where the?- are being fabricated. It is the department’s intention, to forward the girders complete by scows from Tauranga to Paeroa. The- preparation of the foundations of the bridge and the understructure has been slow work, and difficult, but once the erection of the superstructure is commenced it is expected that rapid progress will be made-.