Fixing up an old bridge

Tauranga City Councillors may be quietly hoping a small earthquake will knock over the rail bridge – so they don’t have to pay $10 million for a stand alone walkway/southern pipeline support structure.
The council is hoping to piggy-back the sewer across the harbour on a rebuilt walkway, which will double as a repiling project for the frail rail bridge.

The Matapihi bridge was built in 1926 and is expected to fail in a ‘small to moderate’ earthquake, although it is presently ‘fit for purpose’.
Replacing the piles is not Kiwi Rail’s most urgent priority, but it is of growing urgency for the Tauranga City Council. The existing walkway is nearing the end of its life, and will require major work in the next three years. Council staff are expecting the walkway alone will attract about $1 million in government money – not enough to re-build it.
‘Off and on’ talks with Kiwi Rail over the southern pipeline route across to Matapihi are ‘on’ again, says group manager city services Barry Somers.
A revised concept of building the walkway/sewer structure and strengthening the rail bridge can be done as a two stage project. The walkway and sewer support piling is done on the southern side of the rail bridge, with the pile capping and bridge support piling on the northern side of the bridge completed as a separate project.
A heads of agreement is expected to be completed with Kiwi Rail by mid June, with work on the design, project estimates and cost sharing proceeding in time to produce a recommendation on the project’s viability by the end of the year.

Little known Matapihi railway bridge facts
• The original walkway was a 50:50 council/government project undertaken to stop people being killed on the railway bridge.
• At one stage people were being run down by trains on the bridge at the rate of about one a year, with a total of 14 killed on the bridge before the walkway was completed.
• The present walkway was originally tacked onto the southern side of the bridge in 1952-54.
• The Matapihi bridge was designed and built in England as a straight bridge because the railway line was originally intended to go down Elizabeth Street.
• The council of the day decided at the last minute to run the rail line along The Strand, and the bend was built in.