News and media

Reincarnated !

• 05 Sep 2008

It has stood beside the Papatoetoe railway station day and night for 85 years - no, not the train, the pedestrian overbridge . . .		. . . made from rail imported in the 1860s. When the New Zealand Government bought K class locomotives from the United States in the 1870s, the tracks had to change also, to American ‘T’ section steel rails . . .
. . . which meant the stock of British wrought-iron ‘double-beaded’ rails were redundant. Kiwi ingenuity being what it is though, we used 'em anyway . . .		. . . up until Saturday April 9 2005, when demolition man Glen Henderson and his gang began cutting the old bridge adrift to make way for a reinforced concrete successor.
Ross Murray of the Papatoetoe Historical Society (PHS) and Te Araroa’s John Smith had hatched plans to save it. Manukau City Council agreed to pay transport costs, and by the time the lift began, Glen Henderson had donated the bridge to a joint PHS - Te Araroa project.		The contractors swung it clear . . .
. . . and onto a Mack flat-bed . . .		. . . which raced it 4 km down the south-western expressway . .
. . . to Aerovista Place. Machinery Mover’s boss Ross Mason checked ahead for soft spots . . .		. . . before driver - “Biggys” (pronounced Biggsie) - unshackled it beside the Puhinui Stream.
Mike Nowell of Hi Lift Cranes swung it onto dunnage . .		And there it sits, awaiting voluntary restoration and new foundations before being lifted into its final position - a cheap and historic bridging of the stream as part of Te Araroa’s route through Manukau City. John Smith (pictured) is the project’s mastermind.