In the 1960’s I lived in Tinwald on the South side of the Ashburton river and I would often walk into Ashburton along the foot path and cross over the river by using the walkway that they built on the side of that Ashburton Bridge. I have been working in Ashburton recently and learnt that one of my former neighbours in Tinwald was up in arms that the Ashburton District Council had decided to build a new bridge further downstream and direct the traffic along Chalmers Avenue across the new bridge and onto Grove Street. I was interested in what was proposed because my family and I lived on Grove Street in the 60’s and 70’s so I wrote an article on the subject and posted on the SH1 Business Directory website
Tinwald Ratepayers Dig their Toes in Over a Bridge
Ashburton’s River Bridge is dangerous
I walked across the bridge the other day and I thought I was on a swing bridge. Every time a large vehicle crossed the bridge it shook. I said to a lady walking by can you feel this bridge shaking yes said I have been walking over her for 2 years and it has always shook. It’s only the moss that is holding it together she said. I asked another man and he told me the same thing that the bridge has been shaking for some time and he told me they have been replacing new wooden boards on the footbridge since the others rotted. This this shaky swing bridge is it situated on State Highway One SH1 linking Picton to Bluff. I counted the traffic going over it and in 2 minutes 100 vehicles passed over it that is about 3000 motor vehicles an hour and next year it will have its 80th birthday. The bridge was built in 1930 long before they had articulated vehicles and road trains. The model A motor car was not very heavy and push bikes never had motors. I’m told that the weight of large vehicles are permitted to carry on the road has recently increased.
District Councils Plans
The Ashburton District Council plans to spend approximately $56 million on the following luxuries, new aquatic and indoor stadium, funding for lake hood, new art gallery and museum, property development for industry. May I suggest to the Ashburton district Councillors that before the Ashburton collapses and people get killed and it costs the country billions in lost production they do something about it now. May I also suggest that all the mayors in the South Island, the minister of local government the minister of transport, the prime minister of New Zealand all walk across the bridge in a line and feel for themselves what it feels like to be on an 80 year old swing bridge without a bungy cord.
Where to Build a New Bridge
If the politicians then declare that the bridge is unsafe then I suggest it would be a wise idea to start work building a new bridge the very next day not in 10 years time and the obvious place to build it is alongside the old one. If the hierarchy then get in their ministerial cars and drive down Melcombe street in Tinwald and keep going they will come to another bridge called Arundel which will link them back onto SH1 at Winchester. If they head South past the Phar Lap bronze statue they will come to a village called Washdyke. They could then build a toll bridge from Washdyke across Caroline Bay that will take all the heavy traffic off the main highway into the Prime Port in Timaru.
Message to all local body Politicians
Your job is to take care of our roads and our bridges if you want to save lives then start building a bridge over the Ashburton river today. If you want another Tangiwai disaster costing people their lives and the country millions of dollars then do nothing. The choice is yours
