NEW RAILWAY BRIDGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 621, 25 March 1929, Page 1

NEW RAILWAY BRIDGE

TO SPAN WAIKATO STRUCTURE AT NGARUAWAHIA. The erection of a new railway bridge across the Waikato River at Ngaruawahia is scheduled for completion within the next two years. It is expected that tenders for the bridge will be called later in the year. During the past few months officers and engineers of the Railway' Department have been testing the river-bed and during the week-end still further interesting experiments were made in pile-driving tests. Test piles have been driven for each of the piers which will be required lor the new bridge. Yesterday’ 43 tops of rails were loaded on to one of tha I test piles, but even this huge weight showed little or no movement. The load will be left on the top of the pile for a week or a fortnight in order to observe how the pile behaves. Already the railway engineers have made arrangements to move the telephone and telegraph wires which cross the river on the bridge, and to acquire some land which will be necessary for new approaches. A house will have to be moved at one end of the new bridge and a considerable amount of filling will have to be done. This will be put in hand shortly’. The fate of the present bridge is not known. It may be taken over by the Main Highways Board and used as another traffic bridge over the Waikato, as the present bridge allows for only one-way’ traffic and hold-ups are frequent with so many motor vehicles using the main South road. The bridge is still safe but the in-? creasing weight of trains and locomotives makes it imperative that a stronger structure should be built.