Old store, new bridge

[dianavilliers]

This area (Kerikeri and the Bay of Islands) was one of the first settled by Europeans and these are two of the oldest buildings in the country, the Old Stone Store and the Kerikeri Mission House. Until recently, they were threatened by the existence of a road bridge which ran across the rocky outcrop at the bottom right of the picture. The vibrations of heavy road traffic were damaging the buildings, but worse than that, when the river would flood, the bridge piles would trap debris and act as a weir, diverting water up around the foundations.

The road bridge was demolished in about 2008, when a bypass was opened a few kilometres inland. My brother worked on the nice, safe, single span steel and wood pedestrian bridge in the background.

Comments

[madshutterbug]

I first thought to ask is the new bridge how they fixed the problem of the old and is it one of those (oh, so many words could describe) single-lane bridges? I think my favourite one of those is along the west coast, because it shares the right of way with the Rail Line and is 5 Km long. At least there are pull-outs provided along the length to attempt to get out of the way of the locomotive.

And... nice landscape. *G*

[dianavilliers]

One lane bridges? I've never crossed the rail bridge you mention on the coast, but I will cross the Kopu bridge over the Thames tomorrow. It's being replaced too - construction has started on a new two lane bridge slightly upstream.

[madshutterbug]

Ah, North Island. The only part of North Island we saw was the international airport at Auckland. I don't hold that as being 100% representative.

This bridge may not of been right on the coast, my memory says we encountered it between Queenstown and Fox Glacier or between there and Greymouth. There is another one which is combined rail-road just south of Blenheim that impressed me as well, though that one is two decks with the rail on the upper. The construction is such that approaching from the north it is very difficult to see if there is a car already on the bridge - North Gives Away.

The other outstanding memory for a single-lane was heading from Hamner Springs back to CHCH; we were held up from crossing this one because a caravan rental agency was filming an ad involving a bungee jumper.