THE SHANNON BRIDGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3545, 2 October 1926, Page 3

THE SHANNON BRIDGE.

AGITATION FOR TEMPORARY SPAN. At Thursday night’s meeting of the Foxton Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber was asked to support the following letter, which had been forwarded the Manawatu County by the Shannon Chamber of Commerce :

“I am directed by my Chamber to respectfully suggest to your Co’uneil the advisability of replacing the portion of the bridge at Shannon, which was carried away by flood, with a temporary span, and in support of that suggestion I wish to state: (1) That the punt has never given satisfactory service. (2) That the temporary span pending the building of the new bridge, would be a money saving proposition. The punt, we understand, has cost up to the present time, over £3,000. (3) That one objection that was. raised to a temporary span was that the old structure still standing would be dismantled and used in building the new bridge. Now, however, it is intended to build the new bridge of steel. Thus, the old structure is available on the present, site and we are convinced that it would prove much cheaper in the end, besides giving) continuous communication, to build the temporary span and do away with the unsatisfactory punt. We, therefore, respectfully urge that your Council will take the matter up with the Main Highways Board, with a view to having the old bridge repaired at an early date.”

The President said there, had been a scandalous waste of public money over the bridge’and punt. Mr McMurray said that the erosion of the eastern bank had not yet stopped and the river was still cutting away this bank. After a discussion on the matter it was decided to request the Shannon Chamber to obtain and submit to Chamber to obtain and submit to the local iChanVhpr, an estimate of the cost of the proposed work, and also to state whether the Main Highways Board was in favour of the project.