WAIWAKAIHO BRIDGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 February 1917, Page 8

WAIWAKAIHO BRIDGE.

the contract 'commenced, ■borough council's objection*.

Writhi;,' to tliii Borough Council last, evening im the <|Ue>diou (if till! Wuiwakaiho bridge, the. borough engineer (Air. W. 11. Cook) drew attention to a report in tin; Daily .N'ow.s of February (i concerning a meeting of the Taranaki County Council at .which the mutter of tlii! Waiwakaiho bridge wan discussed. Mr. Cook explained what took place at the conference, at which Mr. Holmes, Messrs Sladdcn and Calmer and himself were present. He understood the following to be the result of the conference:—!]) That the engineers of both councils agree to the form of design of the new abutment: (2) that the question of whether thu work be done by contract or otherwise would he settled after the plans were agreed to by the, Public Works Department and the contributing bodies; (3) that plans of the abutment be prepared to allow of this part of the work to proceed without undue delay, and that plans of the whole structure to V repaired be submitted to the Council prior to reinstating' the arch span; (4) that the western abutment ho underpinned; (5) that the cylinder piers where scoured be tilled in with broken concrete blocks taken from the old arch span: (I!) that the weir be erected, it being uudeistood the work has now proceeded too far to stop. At the meeting of engineers, when it was decided the weir .should be erect ed, -Mr. Cook said he raised an objection to its height, and Mr. Holmes, who had gone into the matter, stated that it would be dropped two feet lower than the ■original level shown on plans. It would also be widened four feet, and afterwards to eight feet, it being found that there were sufficient blocks made to allow this being done. This will have' a somewhat similar effect to putting on an apron piece, which both the county engineers and himself considered necessary to prevent the toe from being scoured. Mr. Cook said he did not place full reliance upon a weir constructed of loose blocks, hence lie endeavored lo stress the point that with a smaller sum of money the bridge piers and abutment could have been so strengthened as to resist very heavy Hoods, and this is to be done to n. great extent by putting down the new abutment to a greater depth, tilling m around piers and underpinning the western abutment. Xo guarantee could be given regarding the permanency of the weir, or that some part at least would not shift under abnormal flooding of the river. He therefore formed the opinion that the expenditure should be concentrated on the bridge, which is of so much importance to both councils. He had been informed that the work had been commenced, and that arrangements had been made to pay Messrs Grayling and Parkin on a commission basis. From the repo.'t in the Daily News of the meeting of the Taranuki County Council the inference was that the JJorough Council had approved of the method of paying by commission, hut he had no knowledge of such approval. It was a most unusual thing to pay a contractor by commission. In fact, he had only heard of it once in 2j years.

The Mayor said the agreement was that all plans should be shown to the iiorough Council and approved of. The engineer and the Council had not approved of the payment by commission or of the plans for the erection of the abutment.

Cr. Montealh thought the Council had been treated pretty harshly. lie considered the 'accident was due to the County Council's negligence, and lie question whether the Borough Council was in any way responsible. As the Council had decided to pay it was imthat it should approve of what was being done, Cr. Johnstone moved that the attention of the County Council be drawn to the fact that the plans and specifications had not been submitted to the Borough Council in terms of the resolution recently passed, inid that no bor,oll*ll payments be authorised unless 'that course was followed. Cr. Johnstone "said that common courtesy demanded that the county engineers should submit plans to the borough engineer. The engineer said :he thought the plans would be satisfactory. The main point was the cost and the mode of payment. On the system at present observed no idea of the cost could be obtained. Cr. Johnstone's motion was carried.