RIVER IMPROVEMENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1938, Page 6

RIVER IMPROVEMENTS

WAIPOUA COURSE REALIGNED. ACCESS TO THE HOSPITAL. The work of improving the course of the Waipoua River through the borough area is proceeding apace. Following on the completion of the stopbank, the water has been diverted into the new channel between the Park and the Colombo Road bridge. The lengthening of the Colombo Road bridge is well under way and when this is completed the bank of the river will be cut back further still on the north-eastern side. Workmen are now engaged in erecting a stopbank across the old course of the river near the cemetery. The suggestion has been made that instead of erecting a swing bridge g over the Waipoua’s new course across e the Horse Paddock in the Park, the pedestrian walk giving access to the Hospital should be taken westward along the river bank on to the Northern Approach. The Mayor, Mr T. Jordan, points out that the original suspension bridge was erected for the specific purpose of giving people a ready means of access to the Hospital through the Park and for that purpose about £450 was subscribed by the public for the construction of the bridge, which cost somewhere about £650 or £7OO, the borough council having found the balance of the money. As the foundations for the neW susnension bridge had already been laid on the south end and the material ordered no alteration could be made in the plans, even without taking account of the fact that the council had more or less to keep faith with the public under the terms of the original proposal. In any case, said Mr Jordan, the proposal to eliminate the suspension bridge would provide a route very little better than that along the ordinary road footpath. The new suspension, he added, would have a total length of 300 feet and would cost about £750 or £BOO. A ramp would be constructed across the old river bed near the Hospital bank.