THE NEWS RAILWAY BRIDGE.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 16, 29 September 1883, Page 2

THE NEWS RAILWAY BRIDGE.

Vfu Kkid, the uoutmet t L'<»r the n,ew hiiil^,;, Ijjh nmv m ul« a f'lir wtt.li the »vi>rJi, ;iiji| Ijhh aln; ««iy a h»^>j number of juun ei»{)l«>y«(i. We i?ubjom purtitulajy

respecting this bridge, which will no doubt Uy of interest t<> our readers. It will be ,H>t!i a traffic ami railway bridge, 455 feet in length, and 14 feet wide in the dear, Tbo whole of the piles used, as well as the superstructure, will be of kauri, except tho«e below tbo concrete piers, and thcbe will bo totam. There will be in all twelve piers, three concrete and the others timber. On the centre concrete pier a trussed iron awing 1 bridge will be fixed, which will turn on the principle of a railway turn-table, and will, when open, iillow vessels to pass on either side of it. The \\ ei^ht of tr«n in it is 19 tons 3 cwt, but the? machinery connected with it is such that one tnnn can work it with the greatest ease This is supplied, by the Government, and wa<? nmdo at the foundry of Murmy and Co., Taranuki. There will be 200,000 feet of knurl nsed in the structure, all of which, piles included, come front the Hikmangi Sawmills, Whang.uei, which are the property of Mr Heid. The totara piles are from Wellington, and these and the kauri range from 24 to 50 feet in length. Irrespective of the awing bridge tin* other ironwork will amount to 16 tons, which is being- inanufictiirot? by Cousin* and Black, of Dunedin, that iirm having supplied the contractor for tan years, and furnished iron for bridges of nil descriptions. The railn will run through the centre, but the whole will be plunked up ho as ju.st to allow the iUmgrs of the wheel* of the railw.iy carriage* to 1:0 into the space let, *nd thereby ncct<l<>ntH th.it would otherwise occur to vehicles wil! bo avoided. Ok th<i Hamilton h'uU o f the river, approaches will have to ho undo over the about cglit chain-; in length, to join Hunt und White's contract, bit tiii* will be included in the ballasting contract, und will require 20,000 yards of earthwork. The bridge contractor has about two chains of formation to mulct* on the To. Arolui .side. We may add that Mr Reid Ush buiit a large number of tbe most important bridges in the colony, amongst others the railway bridge over the Wai tiki, which is more than three-quarters of a mile long, and that river was supposed to bo the most difficult one to bridge in the <-ciU>-\y. The original time for the completion of LhoTcJAroijacotJtruct was eight months; four have expired, but the contractor having made all hi* arrangements wiw confident of being able to finish within tin: tiux^ had ail gone will. We r«gcet to nay that su<:h has not proved to be the casp, owing to a serious blunder of the engineer, who took the bovintr« of the river prior to the drawings being made. Before going further in & matter we may say that the first pile waa driven on Tuesday last, when a little christoning ceremony was got up Miss Warren, ut the request of the contractor, broke the traditional bottle of elmi upatmu, nnd at the time the best wh:>e.s wero expr^fied for the successful completion of the structure of which that wis tho commencement. After this little episodo, pile-driving wont on, but alike t<» the dismay und astonishment of the contractor, if wa> found that in ten piles .iiivcu none tonelu-d the bed rock at the depths HpociKed ami shown in the drawings. Somu of them were driven as much .w .six feet lower than indicated in the plnns, and Mtill did not reach the rock, ho ;i HiiildiMj stoppage to th -»*e operations was nece^itated. The Government Inspector, Mr Hiinua. was called in, but all be could do was to represent tht k matter to the Go vorntneut. and as yet no reply hat> been received. This is a very graw error on the part of the Government Engineer, for the piles prepared, or at least a Targe portion of them will be too short and therefore useless, in addition to which some time must elapse before others of greater length can be brought from Whangarei. There are no less than about 150 already on the ground. This will give Mr Reid an undoubted claim for compensation, as well as good reason for an extension of time for completion. Delay must consequently result, and it is a great pity that this has cropped up at the very outset of the work. It is to be hoped that matters will be arranged as i»oon as possible, but it is satisfactory to know that other portions of the contract are being proceeded with.