New James Road river bridge
Graham and Jenny Pomeroy enjoying access over the new James Road Bridge. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
A new, bolted steel-girder-and-concrete Class 1 bridge has replaced the James Road suspension bridge washed away by the Aorere River flood of December 2010.
The job of building the $1.3m structure, paid for by both central government and Tasman District Council, went to the Rotorua-based company Concrete Structures, which has extensive experience nationwide building large-span bridge projects. Work started on raising the abutments last September, with around six to eight workers seeing the job to completion.
For Graham and Jenny Pomeroy, who crossed the new bridge for the first time on 6 December after almost a year without vehicle access to their farm, this was a real treat - even if just eight days later the slip at Bird’s Hill cut them off again. Without their road access, repairing the massive flood damage to their farm meant flying in materials by helicopter or bringing them through the river, which could only be crossed safely when at its lowest flow. For the first five weeks after the flood, their only option was to kayak out until a footbridge, borrowed from DOC, was installed. This has since been removed and will be reused in Nelson Lakes National Park.
The new road bridge also reinstates for trampers the normal vehicle access to the start of the track up to Boulder Lake (via Brown Cow saddle).
“For sure it’s great to be connected to the outside world again,” said Graham. “But we are also very aware just how lucky we are having this new bridge when the latest round of floods and slips have affected people so badly. Our home was always fine, so we do appreciate what extra turmoil it must mean to many on the other side of the Bay at the moment who have lost their homes.”
The building of the new 61m-long bridge was followed with great interest in the Bainham valley. It is one metre higher than its predecessor, the twisted remains of which are still visible downstream.
The massive steelwork sections were assembled with big bolts, “just like a Meccano set”, and the concrete spans were precast on the road beside the bridge. They were all lifted into position by Concrete Solutions’ mega crane, which had to be transported from its last job in Dunedin in 14 big loads, each of its separate track units weighing 24 tonnes alone. With a lifting capacity of 250 tonnes, the crane only went to its absolute limit when lifting the two assembled bridge beams into position.
Jenny routinely made cakes for the workers’ smokos, and a few locals were drafted in to work. Rockville farmer Steve Garrett was hired to use his 12-tonne digger to help with the approaches, and when he’d finished, his digger was lifted effortlessly back onto the bridge by the crane.
The previous steel-suspension Class 2 bridge at James Road was built in 1968, replacing the 1.8m-wide original built across the Aorere in 1908, which was designed for use by horse and cart. In 1968, when the original bridge (which was six metres lower again) was being replaced, there were briefly two bridges side-by-side across the Aorere.
The new James Road Bridge will open officially on 2 February with a ceremony at 10am. Lifetime resident Ken Pomeroy (whose father settled the James Rd farm) and original Bainham descendent Willis Graham will be there to help with the honours, and Bainham Rural Women will be catering. [See letter this page.] The opening will be followed by a full TDC engineers’ meeting in Bainham, a first for the area.
Golden Bay Community Board chair Carolyn McClellan recalls the opening of the 1968 bridge soon after she arrived in the district to live.
“This latest opening is a big cause for celebration in our community. We’ve replaced a major asset that was taken from us by the flood. It might not have been rebuilt but for the will of the community, so this is a great outcome indeed.”
Gerard Hindmarsh
